Trapped in Roblox!
by SilverConstellation
Summary: Children mysteriously start falling out of the air, and land in an old game that they once played... Roblox. They land as their avatars and face the gravest danger of all time... getting out alive. Join Raine and others in their great escape, or their great end. ONE will never live to see their human forms again.
1. The Beginning

Raine's wheelchair skirted down the sidewalk, flames rising from the tires of her wheelchair, and just as she turned the corner she met… a dead end. She jammed her foot into the wheelchair's tire spokes in utter defeat. Hot tears rolled down from her beautiful blue eyes as the reeking stench of garbage made her feel sick. She tugged at her dark brown hair wildly as she felt that the cruel, brick walls of buildings around her cackled mercilessly as the tall, worn fence in front of her made it impassable. There was nowhere else to go, and the police were approaching too quickly for her to turn around and escape. "No, no, NO! I won't, I won't!" she thought with all her might, "I wish I were somewhere else. Anywhere, but here! I- I don't want to be alone anymore," she finished vehemently. This was it, this was the end for her, here it was and just as the police turned the corner... she felt wind swoosh from beneath her feet.

Raine thought, "That wasn't possible. Wind only hits against you, not come from beneath you." Suddenly, Raine felt the floor disappear from beneath her feet and in shock, when she looked down, something unexplainable was happening! A purple swirling puddle had appeared beneath her feet before she knew it, she was struggling against it. There was nothing to grab onto though. Raine thought, "This had to be a sick joke by someone else! Please let this be over!" She groped at the air desperately for someone to save her from this, but there wasn't anyone there to stop her great fear from happening. Hopelessly, she tumbled in.

She squeezed her eyes closed in terror as she expected to flounder in the deep puddle, but it wasn't a puddle. The swirling circle of purple had become a hole as streams of purple danced around Raine, making her feel dizzy. Raine shut her eyes therefore and called for help while she had little energy left. She was floating in it and as the mysterious puddle slowly started closing, she saw that the last of her brown hair had gone through the hole. She was floating in it for a moment, before hearing her wheelchair rattle as though it was disturbed by something.

She heard the cops turn the corner and an astonished, feminine voice gasp, "She- she's gone! There's no way that she could've jumped over that wall. Didn't you see? She's a cripple!"

Raine tried crying for help, but apparently, they couldn't hear her in here as they probably couldn't see the puddle as it got darker in here. Raine lashed at the top of where she fell through, hoping to find an opening. She'd willingly get taken by the cops right now.

To her dismay, they still couldn't hear her as she screeched for help, drying her remaining tears as she heard a masculine voice chuckled, "Well at least we don't have to chase her down anymore."

The female must've elbowed the guy in the chest making him give an outcry of surprise and slight pain. She frowned as Raine heard them stride off, "I swear, if you did this again..."

Raine panicked and tried swimming against the currents of this strange puddle as she could see the entire place go dark at the top. She felt herself being pulled down, but she struggled. She gasped, "What if they set this trap? No, they…" Suddenly, she was sliding down the puddle as it turned into a tunnel and lit up. She had a sense that… it was a portal?! But that wasn't possible, now was it?! One end of the portal closed as she could see another one open. Raine felt her hair rise up around her as the air crackled as if electricity was building up. She could hear something at the other end, but refused to open her eyes. She questioned, "Is this how it feels to be taken to heaven or am I hallucinating?"

"Someone's coming!" rang a feminine voice with hope as everyone's hairs raised due to the electrified air. Then the sky said, "Pop!" and out dropped Raine from midair, screaming at the top of her lungs as the teardrops flew from the of the corners of her eyes. "AAAAAAAAHHHHH! Oof!" she cried as she landed with a thud and a splat into the mud with all four limbs sprawled out.

"No, unfortunately, three limbs," Raine reminded herself. She reminded herself of her most appalling memory of her tragedy as she spat out the revolting mud out in disgust while more mud trickled from her hair. Raine sighed at her misery; she was a cripple, her right leg devastated in a car accident at the age of 12, four years ago. She shuddered from both her worst memory and from the bitter chill that seeped through her clothing. She got up as she trembled from all of her limbs throbbing with pain.

She attempted to sit down on her wheelchair, which she did not pay for, and… "Wait!" she noticed, "Where is my wheelchair? How was I able to stand up without anyone's help?" She had already leaned too far back though, and she couldn't prevent herself from plummeting into the filth once more, while catching a glimpse of… two legs!

Some kids in the audience, who had seen her arrive, snickered at her folly before someone with a familiar voice burst out from behind the crowd and reprimanded her for ruining her nice clothes.

"Never mind her clothes," shrieked another girl, darting to the front of the crowd. Her nose blaring heat like a bull, and mid-tone red eyes slit with power, gave this girl held the perfect look for a an iron-headed leader. She screeched, "Look out behind you!" while Raine was still marveling at her miracle of having two legs once more.

Raine felt her senses alert her. She did not hear that girl's warning, but her senses beckoned her to look behind her. She turned with an inquisitive look and shrieked at the this hideous horror behind her. What seemed like a rotting corpse of a human groaned as blood dripped out of its previous wounds. Raine shuddered and without thinking, she unsheathed a katana sheathed her back, and leapt into the air gracefully as she glimpsed the color of her hair in a nearby puddle as she twirled in the air. Her hair had mysteriously turned from a dark brown to raven-black hue as her eyes twinkled from blue to brown. Secretly, she liked it better that way. Breaking out of her thoughts, she landed a powerful blow to the creature in the skull and as the audience gasped in awe, the creature toppled in finality. Then in a split second, its remains blinked thrice like a light before bursting limb from limb before it flashed and vanished.

Raine gasped in utter horror at what she had done and attempted to drop the sharp weapon, but it remained in her hands as if it had been super-glued to them. She shook her hands, attempting to detach the katana, but every attempt failed until she decided to sheathe it.

Afterward, Raine put her hands right back in front of her, but found another strange surprise. Instead of her ten fingers, they had now been replaced by crescent shapes like a robot's hands, or as if she was a LEGO figure. She gazed at this other queer and new characteristic. She also couldn't get enough of staring at her two, petite feet until another scream erupted, but this time, not from the crowd, but from above her. The next thing she knew, she was slapped in the face by a mint-green ponytail, and a girl who had just appeared had flattened her like a pancake and rammed her back into the mud.

"Nice catch," sniggered a girl in the spectating crowd with auburn hair, which was decorated with cinnamon sprinkles and autumn leaves. Raine blubbered, face still in the mud, saying, "Ouch! Gerroff of me pwease!"

"Oops, sorry!" squeaked the new girl with mint-green hair. Her decor included an ice cream cone like a birthday-party hat as she had a knee-length plaid dress that was criss-crossed with green and brown stripes. She leapt off of Raine and by mistake, she had kicked Raine in the back of her head. The new girl squeaked, "Sorry! Sorry!" as Raine groaned in pain, saw stars twirl above her head, and face-planted herself back into the mud.

Suddenly, the fierce, red-eyed girl shouted once more, "Behind you!" The girl in the plaid dress pivoted around just as Raine got up, and to Raine's agony,the girl's foot caught her face once more, and she was sent sprawling into the mud again as the crowd roared with laughter or sympathized her.

The fierce girl with the red eyes and black hair seethed at their stupidity at handling dire situations and shouted, "Oh, step aside, Juniors!" With that, she charged forward as Raine staggered away from her, thinking that that girl was going to attack her. The fierce girl reached out a hand, but instead of slapping her, as Raine had expected, she took a weapon. The next thing that happened before the crowd's eyes was bullets whizzing everywhere before Raine could even question which weapon this girl had taken. Hearing bullets fly and the sounds of rapid firing, Raine realized that the girl had taken… her minigun!

Raine swiveled her head side to side to take in her surroundings as the racket of the warrior could be heard as she landed a kick in a shrieking, green face of a creature as she put her last bullet into another creature. She attempted to shoot more bullets, but hearing the empty sound of the gun, she used the empty weapon to slam the last of the horde to the ground. The crowd cheered in amazement just as Raine completed her observation, "... a baseball stadium, a football field, statues of people gunning down more horrid attackers, a frozen pond, a bell tower, and… did I just see someone? No. A… Oh no, a school!" Raine had realized where they were, and shrieked terrified, yet almost exuberantly to the crowd, "No. Out of all games, we had to stumble across the most treacherous one to survive in."


	2. The Rings of Battle

"Oh, yes, yes, yes, we're here in Zombie High School!" confirmed the red-eyes girl, who seemed to clearly be the leader now, before she continued, "We're in ROBLOX, whether you like it or not, and it's about time that you realized." The goth girl thrust out a hand, and Raine accepted her handshake, before her fingers were nearly crushed by this girl's strong hands. Raine pulled away almost instantly, before that dark-haired girl continued, "Name's Talia. You introduced me to this game. Remember, Raine?"

Raine greeted her sheepishly, "Oh. Ya, hey there... So you're telling me that we're stuck in a video game, yet we still have human characteristics, such as the fact that I can still feel pain and that you're bleeding?"

The red-eyes girl touched the side of her cheek, before she confirmed that she did receive a small scratch on herself, and pulled her hand away from her cheek in disappointment at herself. Seeing Raine's expression, Talia guessed that Raine didn't remember her, as she let her jet-black hair fly in wisps in the breeze. She sighed and pretended that she didn't notice Raine's guilt. She called, "C'mon, Raine. We've got work to do."

Meanwhile, a guy loomed into view, above this group. He pulled at his red jacket tighter for warmth, as another fall breeze seeped into his bones. He didn't try to pat his messy hair down, because for as long as he remembered, his hair would always remain fashionably messy, like that. Often times, gel wouldn't even work on his light-mousse-brown hair, but the gel would work for his brother. He quit scanning the right side for any signs of danger, before he huffed out a breath and watched it turn into fog. He turned his mouse-brown bangs aside and mumbled to himself, "Nothing here." He then strode over to the left side, and spectated the the group below him. Most of them had were meant to guard their current sanctuary, the rest were scavengers, and today, it was his brother's turn with someone else. He pushed his glasses higher onto his nose. He scanned the group, and there... there was the girl, who had caught sight of him, while she was in her state of confusion. Even though she had caught caught a glimpse of him, he disappeared from view immediately, from fear of jeopardizing their mission. He reasoned to himself, "After all, if those creatures approach without a warning from me, then it would be his fault." He sighed as he sniffed the sweet air. Dread mixed with delight in his stomach as he felt the freedom being up here, but that sense of freedom was being threatened. He thought about how being alone in the bell tower, gave him as much time as he would like to clear his jumble of thoughts. This vast amount of time though, felt unusual, since he was used to being pestered by his older brother. His thoughts were suddenly broken by the sounds of quarrel, as they echoed up towards him.

Down below, Raine shuffled her feet, as she attempted to politely ask Talia, "So, may I please have my minigun back now?"

Talia scratches her head, "Er, about that, I have a problem where I don't have a proper weapon. All I've got is the Vampire Crossbow, and that thing's weaker than my katana! I wouldn't be surprised if that thing was weaker than a thumbtack."

The auburn-haired girl, in the crowd from earlier, sniggered as she played with her cinnamon-sprinkled hair, "Ya, speaking of hunting vampires with a crossbow, wouldn't you say that Talia looks like a vampire?"

Raine watched Talia roll her eyes and ignore this comment. Raine swayed from side to side before she gave in, "Oh, okay. Well, I guess that you can borrow my hard-earned weapon, along with some ammunition then."

Next to them, the girl that had fallen on top of Raine earlier, finally arrived to her senses, before she decided to introduce herself to this group too. "Gah... my head... Well, hi there! My name's Fern. I was working for an ice cream parlor, until I tumbled into the ice machine. Don't ask how. Anyways, I do have one question, and that is how do we get out of…" before she could finish, she was swarmed by other teens, consisting of girls, who began to greet the newcomers.

"Oh hi!"

"You okay?"

"I like ice cream!"

"Raine, you too?!"

The swarm was more than the new pair could take, and they were nearly trampled, before Raine got up, and could hardly believe her eyes. She shouted with worry, "Melody, you're here too?!"

Raine and Fern were nearly trampled once more by the ecstatic crowd, until someone randomly lamented, "I want cotton candy!" This was so irrelevant, that it caused everyone to freeze.

Since Raine had played this game quite often, she knew that there truly was cotton candy, but it was guarded by one of the most zombie-infested zones in the game. Therefore, she sheepishly replied, "About the cotton candy, that sounds great, but..."

"Well, let's go to the fair then!" cheered the girl, Who had originally brought up this random topic. She had blossom-pink hair, that clashed with the bright lavender hue of her beanie as her eyes twinkled with a hint of unsuppresable joy.

Talia criticized that girl, "Candi, absolutely not. The last time when Raine and I went there, without getting physically stuck in this game, I was sure that we would get eliminated there, if it weren't her for her essential, pet duck and our minigun..."

"Excuse me?" Raine jabbed, " _Our_ minigun?"

"Just messing with ya, Raine," Talia stated, "Point is though, is that without those items, then our avatars would already be one of those bloodthirsty zombies by now. Need I say more?"

"Yes…" peeped the girl, her joy fading away, unlike the sparkling candy ornaments that she wore in her hair, "I don't understand, it's just a treat."

Talia shook her head as her fury roared. She had no time for these... _kids_ to mess around! She snapped, "That. Place. Is. Swarming. With. Zombies... PERIOD! And if you _still_ don't understand, then you can see it for yourself. I won't have anyone bringing you there and attempt to rescue you and your precious kawaiiness, that you value so much! So that's an N-O. We are NOT going!"

A hush enveloped the group at Talia's harshness. The boy with mouse-brown hair, who leaned over the bell tower's railing frowned at this. They we're already off to a bad start. The last thing that they should be doing was creating tension between each others by emotional battles.

"Speaking of battle…" he thought, as he pushed his black glasses back into place. He gasped at his negligence, when he was their scout! Devin swung to the right, when he heard a restless groan.

Three zombies managed to climb onto the rooftop and sneak up behind him! The first zombie leapt onto the bell tower's platform and advanced cautiously, as its muscles twitched and its brainwashed eyeballs rolled round and around. Panic seized Devin, when he made eye contact with those pairs of eyes. The eyeballs of the zombies held nothing, but evil. Rather than being mostly white, they were nearly black completely. Only a pinprick of white was in the center, making Devin feel as if the zombie was staring into his soul, more than his brains. The second zombie leapt onto the bell tower's wooden flooring. Its landing didn't go as well as the first zombie's though. Its footing stumbled, before it collided with the bell in front of it, causing the bell to make its tremulous rings, alerting the everyone.

Devin clutched the painted railing of the bell tower. He felt fear grope at him, before he narrowed his eyes and shouted, "I'm not giving up hope!" This gave him a sense of hope and bravery. He promised himself that he was going to live from fighting, or die trying, before he realized that he must've said his thoughts out loud. He didn't know how loud, but he rolled up his sleeves and dived at the first zombie without any weapons in hand!

The zombie swiped at him, but Devin dodged the blow by sidestepping it. He swayed and then caught his first zombie by taking the rope of the gigantic bell, and with a mighty heave, the bell went loose and fell, enclosing a zombie underneath it! The zombie rung the pendulum of the giant, metal bell. The bell acted as a solid, golden cage, while the zombie was inside of it, acting as its prisoner in the dark.

The second zombie did not even have a chance to attack, before it began trembling with fright, for Devin picked up the enormous bell, and seung it at him. The zombie was struck by he golden bell, before it wobbled, and tumbled off the tower, screaming with anguish till its end.

The third zombie made then made its landing and and shuffled towards Devin. Devin glared at the creature and its merciless eyes, before he backed up and ran at the bell! Using all his might, he pushed with the other zombie inside, broke through the railing, and sent both of the hideous, rotting creatures off of allowing the bell to clang as it hit the ground in finality.

The crowd chimed in an uproar, as they had also noticed that there was now a large dent on the bell. Devin just rubbed his head, and made an uneasy, yet relieved laugh, as he could not believe that he had just successfully survived single-handedly with an incredible feat. He muttered, "Ya, use a giant bell to shove a few zombies off of a tower. Sure, no problem..." Devin ruffled his own brown hair nervously, before creasing his face with an 'oops' expression when he saw Talia's expression. It was clear to him that unlike the crowd, Talia's expression was rather infuriated and unimpressed. He felt better though, when he was finally able to show himself clearly for the first time to the new girl's eyes. Within the recent rainshower's puddles, an extreme dark brown didn't seem to be the right tone for her sparkling eyes. Devin then searched the crowd for his older brother, so that he could prove that wasn't dimmer than him at this, before he remembered that his brother, Tai, was still on his scavenger hunt. That's when his eyes landed on Talia's continuous outraged expression and thought, "Okay, maybe I still am a bit dim at this."

Talia, unlike everyone else, wasn't thrilled. Rather, she scolded Devin, and stunned the new members of their group, who weren't used to such a loud volume. Talia then face-palmed herself, before Raine tugged at Talia's arm, forcing her to lower it and take a deep breath in order to calm down. Talia then narrowed her eyes and shouted, "Great job with taking down a few zombies— and then attracting an entire swarm of zombies to our location, by dropping a huge, golden bell a hundred feet!"

While Talia fumed, Devin turned around, and to his dismay, she was right. A swarm of grotesque zombies that groaned and wobbled within each step was an unpleasant sight. To break the uncomfortable silence, he shouted, "Um, ya. And everyone, prepare for an onslaught! There's a swarm coming this way from the baseball field!"


	3. The Onslaught

"Thanks, Devin!" replied Talia. Rather than beaming with pride though, Devin just tossed his light, chocolate-mousse brown hair aside again and stared down at Raine below him. He didn't really like taking acknowledgement from those who just crushed everyone into order.

Talia commanded, "Everyone get to your positions! Archers: To the bell tower! Melees, to the front! Those with guns, stay behind and do NOT fire until the melee retreats!"

Raine's breath began to quicken as did her heart rate too. She couldn't stop trembling as if she was playing a mafia game. She watched as the measly number of kids picked up their weapons. Talia began breaking up bantering Marie away from Candi, for a little Candi wanted and one of the swords in Raine's backpack, which she donated. Unfortunately, Candi was obviously too fragile to be part of the melee, so she was forced to submit to Talia's demands.

Just as the three bickering girls broke apart, Devin, the boy who first warned them, shouted, "Here they come from the far left!"

The archers began to fire their frail, wooden arrows at the oncoming beasts. The eerie creatures had an abnormal speed to them. Their hungry, beady red eyes staring into their souls. They were dressed in a wide variety of clothing, but their twisted faces showed that this was definitely not a welcoming swarm. Some growling, mindless zombies had sun-hats on, as others still had their baseball mitts on. A few were in pajamas, next to a couple with outfits perfect for cosplay. Their joyful, bright outfits almost made them even scarier.

Raine shivered with uneasiness as the autumn breeze picked up chunks of leaves. "Why did I have to land here in my summer outfit instead of my winter ones?" she thought glumly as she watched the others charge forward. She felt a pang of guilt that she couldn't do much to help in her condition.

Cyndi, Eve, and Talia the melee he began to advance, as the newcomer, Fern hung back with her semi-automatic along with Candi in her edgy outfit, looking on enviously. Melody, meanwhile, attempted to talk her out of her bad mood while Raine stayed back as the new healer. Raine patted her special duckling, which Candi and Eve, wished to call Turtle or Mr. Tizzle.

All of the sudden, Eve cried out in pain as a creature of snuck up on her from behind, and rammed at her collarbone with his yellow bicycle helmet! Her usual, laughing self just toppled and both figures landed on Cyndi who yelped and stumbled over a jagged rock.

Raine jumped to her feet, ready to assist, but fell back down. She'd forgotten about her inability to walk. "Go, Ducky," she ordered, feeling useless herself.

"Fallback!" cried Talia as Cyndi dragged Eve away. Cyndi, herself, hugged one side of her chest where her kidney lay with one arm, as she dragged Eve with the other over the dying grass. Eve was still swinging her katana madly at the zombies in a refusal to retreat. Talia roundhouse-kicked one zombie in a swimsuit before she took Eve by the legs, and guided her to the bell tower with Cyndi.

Rapid gunfire began to sound zombies as the melee entered the bell tower. Zombies began exploding limb from limb before despawning, rather than leaving a scarlet trail behind to Raine's relief. Ducky was trailing the melee as Melody cheered at this horrible time, "It's time to kick some zombie butt!" Fern grinned at this as she reloaded her gun. Raine began crawling and hobbling over to the bell tower as the wave of traumatizing creatures began to clear out.

As Raine listened to the slow, rhythmic pattern of her hands dragging her forward, someone from above abruptly shouted, "Look out!"

Raine turned around and stared at the oncoming zombie that snuck up from behind her. Her movement's pace instantly quickened, but against the slick mud and prickly grass, it was no use. The gunners had their weapons pointed towards the creature, but were too afraid to shoot, for the two were too close together, and it was very likely that could hit the wrong person. The archers had paralyzed expressions, for they could do nothing, since they had run out of arrows, and the melee was too far away.

Raine screamed and kicked herself up into a standing position, but collapsed back down instantaneously. She wished she hadn't done that, for now she twisted her ankle on the foot that she was used to. She could do nothing but try and scramble away helplessly, as tears brimmed uncontrollably. No one could help her without hurting her. It felt like running in a nightmare, where every step you took would just drag you back, as if some force was pulling you back like quicksand or a treadmill. Raine attempted to leap up the hill, but fell into a large puddle and was soon rubbing her eyes to keep the water out, but only got dirt particles in her eyes and on her eyelashes. Her eyes blinked several times in extreme pain, while Raine felt hot tears stream down her cheeks.

"Why did I not get a weapon for myself?" Raine questioned angrily. She was going to die in a game?! This must've been what Fern wanted to ask: How would they get out anyway? Raine staggered, adding to everyone's horror. She turned around crossed her arms in an X shape in a feeble attempt to defend herself. She huffed and braced herself for her moment of death almost willingly and without hope.


	4. Gone

**This chapter is dedicated to Kepler11c and water alchemistXxX. Thank you. You both were the reasons why I was so determined to complete this chapter. :)**

Raine waited and waited for the zombie's rotten teeth to sink into her tender flesh and her shrieks of utmost pain to befall... but it never came. Raine opened one eyelid sheepishly as she questioned, "Er, am I supposed to die yet?"

She stared at the repulsive creature, waiting to become one of them reluctantly, but the creatures' glassy eyes were just staring up at the dim, gray-blue sky. His jaws hung open, foam brimming and slithering down his jaw. "What was taking so long?" she wondered, "He's not praying to the heavens, right?" She didn't dare to look at everyone's reactions behind her, in case if it decided to destroy her right there.

Everyone's reactions were just frozen in place, except Candi's. It was clear what Candi was thinking as she stared at Raine and that unsightly creature. She flung her stupid sword carelessly away in her rage. She could help NO ONE, and especially not that girl who was about to be torn to pieces! Everyone was underestimating her. What was the point staying here anyway if Talia wouldn't let her have her fun?! Survival, survival, survival. That was all that they cared about! What about good food?! She wanted sweets so badly, that she might as well eat her candy ornaments in her rippling, pink-lemonade hair. "Life is supposed to be sweet, not sour," she fretted, before a plan struck her mind, "Wait! This was it!" This was her chance to escape this cruel world. She could go down to the fair behind their backs and bring back everything she had wanted. And when she got her hands on treats, they'd be sorry that they hadn't agreed with her in the first place.

She stared at her saber that created a crevasse in the ground. "No," she told herself, "Bringing a weapon would make me seem weak, besides, it wouldn't be as fun!" With that, she dashed away, and didn't even mind the fact that her lavender beanie had drifted from her hair to the ground. She felt so free… until she heard the grumbling of a zombie behind her.

"No…" she whispered to herself. Hearing her trembling voice made her feel even more terrified. It was too late to turn back, no one would be able to hear her screams for help here. She asked herself for the last time, "Why was I such an idiot to forget that that brown-haired boy had warned us that there's a swarm by the football field?!" Immediately following that thought, the living dead slashed at her arm and red stuff burst from her arm!

[In another scene…]

Tai, the older brother of Devin, looked quite different. Both boys held the same, messy hair, but his brother's was a light, chocolate-mousse brown, while his was just pure, glossy black. Both were intelligent in mathematics, but both held other different qualities and strengths. Devin loved music and sports, while he just focused on mathematics much more intensely. Once in a while, back at home though, he would wander out of his room and find a way to have some fun with Devin… and by fun, he meant giving him a noogie, which was taking his knuckles, and rubbing it against his hair. His eyes wandered off to Ani, his search-party partner. Out of all people, she was assigned with him. The situation wasn't that she was bad at the job… but ridiculous. He wanted to burst out laughing at her for out of all things, she was wearing a CHICKEN OUTFIT in the midst of a zombie apocalypse!

"Squawwwk!" she teased, "Hey, these pretty feathers aren't for you. Now get out before I chase you out of my nest."

"Haha," Tai chuckled, "We're supposed to be teammates, remember? We're not in a wrestling match."

"Hah," she bellowed, "That's what you think. You're really supposed to belong with Candi, not me."

Tai's cheeks turned red as he shushed her from being so noisy not to detract attention, but at the fact that he did enjoy being besides Candi's beguile personality. She was the only one who could take his mind off hard work for a longer period of time than Devin. An outcry that sounded like Candi's bore its way into the air. "Hmph," he contemplated, "Wow, even I can hear her voice clearly." He was sure that it was his imagination until he actually glanced at the exit of the school and caught a girl practically skipping away from zombies at high speed. "Wait," he practically screamed in his mind, "That wasn't a blood stain on her, was it?!"

Ani, not seeing what he was gawking at, just kept giggling with her eyes closed as she taunted, "Wow, you like her so much, that even I can hear her voice in your head."

Tai, acting as if he didn't hear that, came up with the most pathetic excuse in the world. His mind's greatest ideas fell in a single moment in order to save Candi without endangering Ani and their mission too, "Umm…" he blurted, "I need to use the bathroom."

To his surprise, Ani actually thought that he had a good point and said, "Okay, you go. Take all of these weapons!" In an instant, Tai was buried underneath machetes, guns, chainsaws, etc. Every single weapon that they had brought with them was given all to Tai. Without saying another word though, Tai had already dashed off to save the poor girl.

"Buh-bye!" said Ani in a sing-song voice before she realized that she herself didn't have a weapon.

"Oh well," she tittered, "I'll just use my ultimate power!"

[Meanwhile…]

Raine just kept sitting there, her voice still raspy with exhaustion, waiting for her death… or undeath. She stole a look at the creature, but no, he wasn't staring at the sky, but at…

"Hiiii-ya!"

A battle cry was heard, and Raine's views were blinded by a bright flash of light as if someone had just pointed a camera at her. When her view came back into focus, she heard the whizz of a katana fly by and the deadly weapon had been jammed into the creature's brains (if it did have any), and the monster promptly bursts limb from limb. Raine stared in horror as it despawned, but it was short-lived as she was the next to get struck upon the head, but with luck, it was by the hilt of the sword.

"Ouch! What is your problem?!" she hollered, rubbing her head. Raine quickly covered her mouth, and blamed herself for impulsively acting so rude. As she opened one eye timidly, in case if there was still danger, she saw an athletic boy standing in front of her. He adjusted his black glasses as Raine observed his attributes. Wasn't he the figure that she might've seen in the bell tower?! She thought, "Gee, that must've been a long fall. How did he live?! This isn't Fortnite where you have gliders."

Deciding to say something now, through everyone's cheers, she laughed, "Oh I thought that I was going to be sacrificed to the Greek Gods or something."

"No one's being sacrificed today," her savior smiled.

It was the boy with chocolate-mousse colored hair. He did save her (but not all her brain cells), yet as mentioned, he couldn't have saved her without hurting her, as everyone else would've done.

As Raine refocused, she realized that it was he who had originally warned them from the oncoming swarm. He wore black, tech glasses shielding his light brown eyes that were also partially covered by his sharply defined bangs. His bangs were like a wolverine's claws, and they gently swayed with the fluctuating breeze."Dalon? Derin? No, DEVIN!" she barked.

"What?" he questioned, and flashed a grin at her.

before Raine could come up with an answer, a new voice rang in the air," Nice job, Devin."

"Ani!" greeted Talia and Eve in unison, as Eve was sitting on the bare floor of the bell tower, and Talia peering over the hazy balcony.

"How did the raid go?" questioned Talia.

"I lost a lot of feathers," answered Ani glumly.

"Raine would've burst out laughing at Ani's ridiculous costume, but first things first. She shouted, Wait, you stole from the school?! How could you?!"

"Whatever it takes to survive," replied Devin.

"Devin!"

As Raine had her own personal debate with Devin, she tuned into Ani and Talia's discussion... well, argument.

"We did fine, but Eve's hurt," responded Talia, "Cyndi went to find her some medical supplies, but... WHERE'S TAI?! Out of everything you could've mentioned first, you decided not to mention your partner and his condition?!

"Oh, I let him go to the bathroom."

"WHAT?! ANI, how could you?! You left him alone in the middle of a zombie apocalypse to let him use the bathroom?! Raine, here, almost died, you, you… EGGHEAD!" screeched Talia at one of her closest friends. This was her responsibility, and she wouldn'tve entrusted it to Ani if she knew she would take those excuses.

Suddenly, Melody interrupted every heating argument and laughed, "Oh Raine, you silly, stop sitting there, and Devin, she's a cripple, so stop offering her a hand up. She doesn't understand."

Raine froze in embarrassment and stopped listening to the others' debate, realizing that Devin was still standing there, trying to help her up, and she didn't understand. "Oh, no. I-it's fine. I can help myself uuuuupp. Woah!"

Devin had just lifted Raine up instead before Raine could finish her words and argue back.

"No, no, I'm fine!" she screeched.

"Awwwww, you two are so cute!" cried Melody, having the time of her life.

"Wha? What?!" shrieked Raine, before Devin dropped her into the mud out of bashfulness. "Aaaahhh!" she shrieked, "Devin, for the last time, stop dropping me into the mud!"

"Sorry," he apologized, cheeks turning pink before he gently picked her back up and brushed some dirt off.

Raine thought for a moment, and then in return to Melody for aggravating her, she faked her distress, and yelled, "Oh no! Melody! The spider's going to get you!"

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh! Where?!" Melody twisted and turned frantically, as she batted her gleaming, cyan-blue hair.

Devin sniggered as Melody went wild with tossing her hair around under her black beanie. Raine, meanwhile, didn't laugh at her own prank, but decided to battle her jittery, indefinite emotions.

The air surrounding them was peaceful, even though it was still filled with Talia's rebukes, and Ani's snide remarks:

"Don't worry, I left him with all six of our weapons."

"Then you could've died!"

"Well, I got back here with all of my brains, didn't I?"

"Not your tail feathers!"

"Hey, I had to use my epic move!"

"What was it?" Talia hissed, unable to contain her fuming beast.

"Blinding them by shaking my feathers in their face!" announced Ani proudly to Talia's fear.

Raine snickered as she listened to others' heated argument, but she, herself, also was having one too. She and Devin were having an intense 'who was right' debate. Tai was revealed as Devin's actual brother, so of course he voted for Talia, while Raine believed that Ani was somewhat right. Devin was nice enough to give her a chance to speak her thoughts, but Raine just insisted on the correct result instead. Suddenly, the not-so-nice peace was penetrated by Cyndi's mortified shout.

"Everyone, get armed! It- it isn't zombies." Cyndi's eyes were full of fear. She was obviously haunted by what she had seen.

Devin dropped Raine again, to her horror, but he caught her in time, just as her dark ponytail, tied by a blue elastic, brushed the ground gently.

Everyone after that agonizing shout simultaneously rose from their places. As if knowing what each was thinking, they dashed over parched grounds that were still covered in some patches of yellow, dead grass.

Instead of feeling irksome as they sped through several terrains, Raine started to enjoy depending on someone else for once, rather than always being self-dependent since she had... lost something. Something so valuable, that it made losing a leg seem like nothing.

They came to the center of an uneven terrain near the metal fence of the football field, where more malevolent zombies lurked. There, they found a bright, lavender beanie, covered in a fresh patch of crimson red.

"No, it can't be!" thought Raine frantically, but here it was as proof before their eyes. When zombies despawn, so does their clothing. It was one of theirs. Candi's.

Talia shrieked, as she tugged her dark locks and eyed the beanie in disbelief, "Candi?! CANDI! I'm so sorry! I- I'm sorry."

The possibility suddenly seemed so real. They could meet their end here. Candi was gone. Nothing, but her beanie remained with them.


	5. Together

**This chapter is dedicated to Noiselessly and Mogutan the Great. Thank you for keeping up my dedication even when I ran into major situations. Mogutan the Great is also writing a fanfic of my fanfic! XD Make sure that you check it out once it's published, and please give her my support once you've read it! I trust that it will be amazing! :D**

Raine attemtpted to withdraw her tears, but in vain, as she watched the dismaying funeral of Candi come and go by full of sorrow and great pain. They had no corpse to bury, just Candi's alarmingly-stained beanie. The eerie, crimson red had almost dried, but was continually revived by their flooding tears.

Tai, also, did not reappear, and Raine was left to sit by Devin, his younger brother, who was filled with uneasiness. Fear clouded his face and obscured his usual cheery self as he grew steadily restless. Ani began to think twice about her words as a grim line was drawn across her rosy lips, which now turned paler every moment with her cheeks. Every moment that ticked by grew progressively uncomfortable for all.

During Candi's remembrance, filled with Tai's sympathy also, each one of them made a short speech.

Raine felt a pang of guilt as each one gave their brief memories of Candi, including Fern. For almost half of them, this was their first funeral, including Fern. Even though Fern had arrived to this place after Raine, everyone, including Fern had known more about Candi than just the 'I want cotton candy' part.

At last, it was Raine's turn, and Fern came over and stabilized her, then guided her up there.

As Raine got up in front of the uneasy crowd, she found her voice and began her epitaph. "Friends," she paused, "I honestly am not very knowledgeable about Candi and her life's story, but I do know enough to feel the pains of wasting a lifetime chance. Even Fern knew better than I did about her, even though she arrived later. My disability should not be an excuse for missing any of these blessings that I could've had. Each day, we are given opportunities whether we know it or not. This includes the simplest ones too, such as asking questions. I believe that I may never be able to see Candi again," sniffled Raine, as tears brimmed, "But I have learned never to miss out on what I may have with anyone else thanks to her... and her ultimate fate." With that, Raine trudged off their makeshift stage.

No applause was given due to the solemn manner, but she knew that she did well, for Talia nodded as she, herself approached to complete the ceremony.

Talia cleared her voice before putting everyone into waterworks, "Today, we are gathered here to honor a fellow friend who has taken the worst possibility... one which we never would've considered if it didn't happen. I- I cannot change what has happened, but like you, I can learn from it. You know, sometimes, I blame myself for what has happened; perhaps if I wasn't so ... demanding, then she wouldn't have run off alone. I should've considered her feelings, I should've cared for her more. Now, I may never have that opportunity again. " With that, Talia thrust their old shovel into the parched soil with all her frustration and anger, and then gently laid the Candi's beanie in.

Raine was still crying at their hopelessness, and yet the fact that everyone was put together by their tragic loss was overwhelmingly surprising. She then searched her thoughts as she tried to stifle her tears, and realized that they all lost something, but someone was sitting at the edge of the crowd, not just losing one person, but his family member too... Devin.

Raine did something brave and unexpected from herself; she walked over to Devin, and put her arm around him to show that she cared and understood the most. Devin was heartbroken at the thought of his own brother's horrible, awaiting fate. They didn't choose to come here, yet here he was again, not being able to choose whether or not his brother would be there for him again.

Finally, as Raine lightly patted him, he cried softly as he raised his head, "You know, I never chose to come here... none of us did. Yet here we all are, realizing perhaps too late that we all do have similarities, and our differences shouldn't separate us. I always was honestly envious of how my brother was so good at math. I always said that NASA would choose him over me, and yet, I should've realized that we all had our talents and disadvantages. I was good at math too, yet feeling overshadowed shadowed my realizations. We both could've done great things... but in different places and ways. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, you know. After he disappeared though, I realized that, 'Love is the feeling of knowing that you'll miss something when it's gone.'

Raine nodded; it was true. Every item that she had had was never very meaningful to her until it was gone. She decided to reply to Devin's quote while struggling to maintain her sorrow to an upright level, "Just except for people though. Some, we never realize that we love them so dearly till they're gone... and others, once they are gone, we realize that we love them even more than we thought we did."

Devin nodded it was his turn to bury the beanie. He strode up there with a strange distressing, yet confident manner and took a large shovelful of dirt and covered most of what was left of the beanie. He then returned back to Raine, who was half smiling in tears, and assisted her back up there.

Finally, Cyndi covered the tip of the wool beanie, before Marie simply _had_ to comment that it wasn't completely buried yet. A few of them glared at Marie, before Cyndi was bullied into covering it fully again. As Raine watched, Cyndi patted the earth firmly down, and as she strided away, she turned to make sure that the wool beanie was completely buried.

The group got up silently after Cyndi and followed Talia back to the tower. Raine noticed that Talia wasn't shedding tears anymore, though a frown still remained upon her face. Her eyebrows were knit tightly together as if she was thinking about something.

Raine stood there, lost in her thoughts once more, till Devin startled her by saying abruptly, "Raine, I'm going to teach you how to walk."

"What?" she replied, "No, I'm..."

"No. Like you said, I'm going to use my lifetime chances. I want to help, and I know that you don't always like being dependent on everyone else, especially in horrible situations. If you get hurt, I'm never going to forgive myself, so let me help. Please," he urged.

Raine bit her lip. She disliked when people used her words against her, but here he was, trying to save her from a horrible possibility. "Alright," she nodded, giving in.

Devin smiled as his grim mood seemed to fade away. He lifted Raine's arms out, making her seem as if she wanted to fly like an airplane.

Raine instantly felt as if she were in a scene in the Titanic as she felt the wind whistle and twirl all about her. Devin's hands held a surprising warmth to them, even though he was still stuck as the game's avatar in the chilly autumn. His clasp also felt somehow promising as they trekked back to the tower.

From a distance, one could see Raine with her hands out as if she were about to give a hug, and Devin behind her, guiding her to her first steps after many years. They were both smiling at each others, and Raine felt a sudden, happy sensation appear within her emotions as their hair swirled around in the breeze together.


	6. And Found

Before Raine knew it, they had arrived at the doorway of the high, bell tower. They found the others bustling around like little ants as Melody lamented that she probably had a splinter in every finger. Marie, the girl with auburn hair from earlier, just laughed as she tugged at her leather jacket heard, and as her usual teasing self, she replied, "Oh, it's probably not splinters, but spider bites on each fingers."

"Hey!" whimpered Melody, who picked at her flesh frightfully, and shivering from the cold due to her rock-star outfit that wasn't designed for the chilly weather.

Raine observed that Marie had kept her bantering self still, but she did seem a bit upset without her usual buddy, Candi to tease. Raine winced at the thought of Candi's name, but Talia snapped both of the girls out of fooling around, before turning towards Devin and her.

"Aren't you two going to help?" she questioned sternly with a gun pointing at them.

"Whoa! Talia... put the gun down..." Raine persuaded sheepishly.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to point that at you guys," Talia replied, as she put Devin in charge of the wood planks, rather than Marie.

"Ha!" cried Marie, shooting Melody a pretentious look.

As the two bickered and complained, Raine thought, "Wow, well Talia has definitely resumed her rightful position like a general once more. Eh, I do miss it."

Talia focused on Raine, and let her in on their plans, "Look, we've got a matter in our hands. We've decided to move to this cupcake shop before nightfall..."

"A cupcake shop? Gee, I didn't know that you liked sweets."

Rather than disputing, Talia ended up smirking and continuing, "Hah, but we need more space, so we're going to build another landing on that place, higher than those creepy zombies can reach. Cyndi has also been sleepwalking randomly lately, and I doubt that the railing can save her from... well, her fall. We're hoping for some more food there, rather than those apples that Ani brought us!" Talia glared at Ani, who just burst into laughter and shook her battered costume miserably.

"Hey, they kept on respawning every time I took one," cried Ani cheerfully as if nothing was wrong.

"Heh," commented Marie, "Plus, if an apple a day can keep a doctor away, and an orange a day can keep a therapist away, then I'm sure that a pear a day could keep a zombie away."

"Say what?" laughed Raine.

"We'll need a lot of pears than if we want to keep every zombie away," joked Talia.

Fern and Melody just fell to the floor with roars of laughter, as Eve patted Marie and smiled weakly. The others just smirked or broke into a grin to see the rest in a good mood.

Raine was glad to see everyone happy for a moment after their devastation, and then to keep their good mood up, as they began reaching for their assigned luggage, she asked as they began to get on the move, "Hey, what's the opposite of an apple? A pear or an orange?"

"Pear," Melody, her cousin, immediately answered.

"No, an orange! That's the complete opposite," Marie argued and attempted to get Melody to relent.

"Hmm, good question. I think an orange," Devin replied, as Cyndi nodded in agreement.

Eve just remained silent as she winced in pain from her injuries earlier until Talia released her smart answer, "No, the opposite of Apple is Microsoft."

"Oh my... er, goodness gracious!" cried Melody, shaking her head in a 'you blew my mind way'.

"You turned the tides of my question now!" lamented Raine.

After their awe ended at Talia's clever answer, they broke into a different subject... or well, a debate. Raine was staring defiantly at Marie for both of them seemed to disagree at one another's opinions besides the fact that they both adored children. Eve kept continuously denying Fern's offers for assistance as Cyndi's eyes dashed over their surroundings unnervingly.

Everyone froze as an almost joyful shriek pierced the air, followed by giggles, that shook Raine's observations as she kept dragging her ropes.

"Why are you skipping now?!" questioned a masculine voice frantically, "We're not in 'The Wizard of Oz'! Can't we just run?!"

"Well, I forgot how to run… Ooo, a Ferris wheel! C'mon Tai, can't you get rid of them any quicker?"

"I'm trying," answered a young voice over gunshots, "But these zombies won't stop trying to block the Ferris wheel."

"Aww, they're going to ruin your suit! Well, when I get down from here, I'm going to finish it off by tie-dying your tie afterward, Tai."

"...But I don't have one."

"Then I'll buy you one, and then I'll ruin it."

"You're a good artist, but do you know how to tie-dye?"

"No, I'm not good, I'm trash! And, um... no, I don't have the slightest clue."

"Then how are you going to tie-dye my non-existent tie?" he laughed.

"CANDI! TAI!" shouted everyone in unison, as they came out of the clearing and confirmed that it was Candi.

Overjoy instantly filled Raine as she forgot herself and dashed. Talia sprinted along beside her, and Raine's eyes turned to her and said, "Race me." Raine had forgotten about being a cripple, and suddenly running, before someone cried "Look at her go!" as Talia fell behind, grumbling about her ankle.

As they neared Tai, Devin came forth and patted his sharp-minded looking brother who greeted him, "Hey, Devin! You want a noogie like the good, old times?"

"What's a noogie?" asked Raine.

"Raine, no!" shouted Devin frantically.

"Well then, I'll show you," cackled Tai, who grabbed Devin by the head and put his hand into a fist, before rubbing his knuckles against Devin's hair, who gave a laugh, but also in a bit of pain with a mixture of relief for his brother was safe.

Raine just smiled and reached out to embrace her old pal, Candi, just as she felt the dried, caked mud on her crackle. "Aw, I need a shower," she fretted.

The others suddenly broke into a smug look all together and eyed each others.

"What?" she asked, and she found out all too soon.


	7. Cyndi

**Thank you so much to all those who have made it here! You have no idea of how much this means to me! Plus, thank you to Kreuzer! You gave me the persistence I needed to complete this chapter and the next!**

By shower, rather than the hot steamy one that Raine would've preferred, it meant an ice bucket challenge. No wonder why the others had laughed when she mentioned that. "Ah!" she shrieked as Eve, Talia, and Cyndi dumped the third bucket of cold water onto her and her soaked clothes.

Just before she could appreciate being in her summer clothes, rather than her winter clothing, somebody really ice-bucket challenged her with a bucket full of water and ice. Raine shrieked and tackled whoever was behind her and punched him on the chest with every ounce of might in her. Only when it ended with laughter from him, it left her in confusion. Raine had no idea of how much damage her fist did, due to how numb she was. Her clothing was soaked to her skin and as she tried to get up, she stepped on a pile of ice, agonizing her foot. She shrieked and fell like a damsel in distress, but rather than losing more brain cells, she was caught in her flight and her prickly hair was brushed out of the way by someone's hands Raine lamented, as she still couldn't see anything, due to the water obscuring her view.

A towel was draped around her, and Raine rubbed her face with it, clearing her view. Devin already had his arm around her, ready to help, as Marie, Ani, and Candi snickered in the corner.

"I told you that her reaction would be priceless," laughed the troublemaker, Marie, as Talia tried to decide how to eat a cupcake that she found. Raine wished intensely that she had nice, dry clothes to wear as the autumn chill seeped through her clothes. She despised the squishy noises that her soaked shoes made as her teeth chattered together, ready to break into broken glass shards at any moment. Her hair plastered together like dark icicles as she felt the warmth of Devin by her side.

She looked up, and abruptly, before her eyes, Cyndi held her arm up and a dark warp hole whirled in the air and vanished. Clean clothes now lay neatly in a pile in front of Cyndi.

"Oh thank you!" gasped Raine as Cyndi shoved the clothes into her arms without a word. Then Cyndi trembled and marched off, her hair shielding every feature of her face except her dark lips that were rosy-pink a moment ago.

"Um, okay," replied Raine as she thought, "Did I do something wrong to her? I hope not."

Soon after, Raine was still shivering as Devin led her to their new, completed bedrooms. Along the way, the door to their meeting room was ajar, and they caught a glimpse of Eve and Fern inside quarreling noisily. They crept by and finally arrived to the sleeping quarters. Raine gasped, it was quite the workmanship for a couple of teens within a few hours. Four bedrooms stood on the right , two storage rooms on the left, and even a balcony! Each room could allow two people to sleep at maximum and some even included work spaces. Raine counted the beds and noted, "We're four short."

"Ya, we ran out of lumber, but three will be on guard duty."

"And the one left?"

"Sleeps on the balcony."

"And who will that be?"

"Me."

"But... no, it'll be so cold."

"I don't think that guys need their beauty sleep," laughed Devin.

"But you do need your energy."

"Well according to science, energy isn't wasted, it's just transferred into a different form."

"Still..."

After a short quarrel, Devin triumphed, and Raine trudged to her bedroom. That night, Melody, Talia, and Ani went on guard duty as the others rested in their beds and Devin in his sleeping bag... or well, what was once a potato sack, but now with some blankets and pillows. The darkness had swept over the hallways now and someone's snoring could be heard in another room as someone stopped tossing and turning.

Raine just lie in her bed, feeling too distraught to get a wink of sleep. Next to her, Marie snored comfortably. "How could that girl sleep in jeans?!" she wondered. Besides Marie's snoring, only faint sounds could be heard from the other rooms. Fern was roomated to Eve, Cyndi by herself, and to the pair's joy, Tai was partnered up with Candi. Raine lied in her bed, and stared at the door. Guilt hung inside her that she didn't win the debate against Devin. "Poor thing, he must be so cold," she conjectured, "You want to know what, I'm not going to let him die out there!" With that, she trudged out of bed, reached for the door handle. The door creaked, and Devin, still wide awake, swung around to find Raine, dragging her blankets along with her.

"Couldn't sleep?" he enquired softly.

"I think you're going to die from frostbite," Raine snapped.

Devin just smiled in return as if he wouldn't mind if he did for her, and remarked, "It's quite beautiful tonight isn't it? Never thought that being stuck here felt more like reality."

Raine peered up and gaped, millions of stars twinkled above their heads, and she laid now besides Devin. "Wow..." was all she could say.

"Gorgeous isn't it?"

Raine nodded, and spontaneously their fingers intertwined. Both of them gasped at each others' touch and held their hands up in the moonlight. Then their eyes met and they broke into a smile. After counting their 2,000th star, Raine drifted off to sleep.

[A while later…]

Thump, thump! Thump!

That sound aroused Raine. Raine groaned and turned over to her side.

"Shhhh..." someone said.

"Huh?!" cried Raine who leapt to her knees as more doors leading to bedrooms creaked open and revealed a part of the group standing in the hallway. She searched around in the darkness and found the silhouettes of Talia, Ani, and Melody surrounding their only exit... which was also their only entrance. Were they trying to trap them?! "What are you all..."

"SHH! Whatever you do, don't turn on the lights nor make a sound," commanded Talia, but Melody decided to do both.

"Ahhhh!" They all shrieked at the sight of the shadow towering above them.

Talia cried, "Wait, it's you Fern! What are you doing up so late?"

"Thanks for ruining my sleep," grumbled Marie.

"Phew, at least it's you though," gasped Melody, "It could've been worse."

"Ya..." responded Fern, who tiptoed out of the light and the moment her face grazed the shadows she pounced onto Melody, with a malevolent expression, and caused the flashlight to turn off, and with another thump, she sent it tumbling.

Shrieks erupted from all around the dark room as items thumped all around.

"Where's the flashlight?!" someone shouted as someone picked up Raine and tossed her across the room and away from harm. Raine shrieked and landed besides the balcony. Then, her fingertips felt something. It was the flashlight! She fumbled it around until she felt the switch and turned it on. The light landed directly on Fern immediately, who dropped Ani from her clutches as Melody shrivelled from pain on the floor.

Fern trembled at what she had done and retreated to the side of the room.

"Keep the light on her," ordered Talia, her voice trembling with fear, "Check Ani and Melody for any blood, for I fear for the worse."

"What happened?" Tai questioned from beneath the ladder. He had taken Candi downstairs to keep her away from harm, but had found an army of waiting zombies, which he had sliced down.

"I think that Fern is infected," replied Talia as Fern's eyes appeared with tears. Then, Talia gasped as a thought hit her, "Remember when we found her arguing with Eve and then Eve was gone a moment later?! Well... what if Eve bit her?! Remember when we saw that zombie in that bicycle helmet hit her? Well what if that thing bit Eve?! We didn't check her properly, so if he infected her, then she could've spread it to Fern! Since Fern is in the early stages of this infection, she might have a malady where if she's not in the light then she won't turn into a... a monster, but if not, then what just happened will happen again. She- she even led zombies right to us!"

A few people gasped, and a mad discussion began as Marie kept the light on Fern, and sighed. Fern was another one of her closest friends, and it just hurt, knowing that she had almost lost Candi, but now Fern.

Meanwhile, Raine just sat there though, lost in her thoughts.

Before Raine could come to her conclusion, Fern decided to speak up, her voice trembling as she shook her head and said, "It wasn't Eve that infected me; it was Cyndi. Cyndi is the traitor."


	8. Her Conclusion

"WHAT?!" cried Talia, "But how?!"

"When we were arguing," replied Fern uneasilt, "We didn't notice that Cyndi was hiding under teacher's desk behind us. She must've felt queasy and decided to hide there, but she must'ntve realize that the shadows were the thing that would affect her instantly. So being under hidden under the darkness of the desk must've droven her mad, and the next thing that we both knew, the desk had been flung out of the way in the midst of our quarrel, and I was bit. Then, Eve was then taken. I- I wasn't able to tell anyone for I- I felt as if something was fiddling with my mind, and my actions."

After Fern finished, she bursted into sorrowful tears as the others stood at the other side of the room uneasily, trying to comfort her by chatting to her.

Talia, though, just shook her head with disbelief as they decided what to do. She finally reached her decision. "We have to move," she concluded, "And we're not leaving you behind Fern. It's too dangerous here now that those creatures know where we are, but as long as it's daytime, you'll be fine... for now."

At last, Raine was hit with the idea that she needed. She gasped and said, "Devin, remember when Cyndi summoned those clothes for me? Well, if she can summon the clothes in, then she can summon a way out!


	9. Fight to Flight

**To all readers, every chapter has been fully updated now! Thank you for being so supportive! Now, this chapter is especially dedicated to skyseeker1 and xXDamianSenpaiXx! Thank you, thank you! I appreciate it, skyseeker1, for giving me the patience and persistence to complete this chapter. Then, thank you to xXDamianSenpaiXx for being a good buddy and making me laugh at your hilarious profile!**

But… how?!" exclaimed Melody.

"Didn't she just explain?" said Marie, rolling her eyes, "About how Cyndi was able to summon clothes in? Then if she clothes could get the clothes in, then there must be a way to reverse it and get out?"

"No," replied Talia, shaking her head.

"What do you mean by 'no'?!" shrieked Marie, "Isn't that what she said? You tell 'em Raine!" she demanded, but Raine just looked stunned at her sudden involvement and stared, dumbfounded.

Devin gave her a look saying, 'Now don't you start on her!'

Marie just snapped back, spurned by their mindlessness, "But I heard what I heard! You all heard it clearly, didn't you? Didn't you?!"

Talia finally looked up after searching her depths of knowledge, and answered, "No, I don't think that that's what Melody means. I believe that she means, 'so now what?' Cyndi has take Eve, and both of them are gone. But why Eve? Why just her and not Fern too? Maybe she knew that she couldn't take the struggle or her madness effects wouldn't last any longer. Therefore, she took Eve and let Fern to suffer."

Tai spoke up as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Or what if Eve knew something, something that Fern didn't know. Which leads us to…"

"Hide and seek!" giggled Candi. "Hooray! I can read minds now! Just kidding… it means that we have to find them," she finished glumly as Tai reassured her that they could play later.

"Now you're talking sense, Candi!" cheered Talia. For once, Candi was actually thinking about the smarter decision.

"And you're talking nonsense," retorted Marie, "Look, I enjoy being with my pals, but I don't think that they'd be happy to find us basically sacrificing ourselves just to find them."

"What else can we do though?" Ani clucked, "I know that they won't like it, but what else could we do? Those monsters know our location (Fern burst into tears because she felt that she was worthy of the blame), and if we stay here any longer, they'll figure out how to out-maneuver our defenses; we might as well move now."

Fern trembled in the corner, blinded by the light still, the night's breeze swept at her plaid dress, causing it to sway side to side. Her mint-green hair drooped and covered her eyes. She felt like a threat to all those whom she cared about since she was bitten. She feared that she might lead another swarm of those bloodthirsty beings and have them all obliterated without her knowledge until she awoke. It was worse than being a corpse, she was practically a traitor at this point, against her will.

Ani, seeing Fern this miserable, decided to vouch for her defense. She hopped in her outfit, which was now a red crayon and yelled, "Alright! I want to continue speaking and if any of you dare to object, then prepare to get batted on the head!"

There was silence, except from Marie, who exclamored, "I want to see how that feels like."

"Be quiet!" demanded Ani, who hit Marie on the head once.

"Ouch!" she whimpered.

Everyone shushed, her before Ani began, "Ahem," she began, "So… we're not gonna' leave Fern here, right? It's best that we don't. First, none of us would ever forgive ourselves about it. Second, um… Karma's gonna' get us if we do."

The first reason was enough for everyone. Talia gave her approval of it without a second thought, "Of course, friends are friends. We'd forgive easily for accidents, but we wouldn't appreciate it if there was a cover-up," she turned to Fern, "So the next time, if something's wrong, if you can, then tell us. I know you couldn't because you weren't in your right mind, but if you can, you must, so that there's not another…er..."

"'Candi situation,'" finished Tai, knowing how Talia didn't want to bring up losing someone again."

"Will we do skipping this time?" inquired Candi, thirsty for some fun.

"Candi," laughed Tai, "I'm sorry, but I've told you this before, we're not in The Wizard of Oz."

Everyone laughed lightheartedly, even Fern smiled for the first time in a long while. Afterward, they all got down to business— the business of unpacking. Devin and Raine both gazed meekly at each other's eyes, and opened their mouths as if wanting to say something, but both of their courage failed to appear. Therefore, they dropped their gazes and went to assist the others with their long list of tasks. By dawn, Devin had finished disassembling their last bedframe silently with Tai, before hearing Talia bark, "Ani, stop drawing irrelevant pictures on the list!"

"It's not One Punch Man (an anime character who is bald), it's an egg to represent food!" cried Ani, clearly hurt by Talia's misinterpretation, and tried to whack her on the head, but Talia easily blocked it, causing Ani to attempt even more.

"Oh. Sorry," mumbled Talia, "Speaking of food, who did you let to go handle the food?"

"Candi and Marie."

"Anyone but them!" shrieked Talia, her temper boiling.

"Hey, they wouldn't do anything, and they did promise to save something for me," replied Ani to Talia's outrage.

"Anything, but eat!" screeched Talia to Ani's face, before rushing off to the kitchen.

The door to the kitchen flung open with a loud 'crash!' as Talia burst in, breathless, but ready for the crisis. To her horror, her fears had been confirmed true.

Candi looked up from trying to swallow a cherry pit, as Marie threw her 32nd juice box away.

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Talia roared.

Candi shrunk in fear as Melody just walked past them nonchalantly and bit into a cupcake. That did it for Talia!

There was practically an earthquake in the kitchen, as the others wobbled with fear outside of the room. Tai got up, after tumbling to the wooden floor, and rushed to the kitchen to find poor Candi.

Fern was still locked up in her own room, as Raine was supposed to guard her until she felt the floor tremble and she lost her footing.

"Aaaahhh!" she shrieked and rolled across the floor and hit the balcony's railing. "Lucky that was there," she mumbled as she rubbed her sore neck. Wait! She was supposed to be guarding Fern and keep her in the room! She dashed to her place and listened pressed her ear against the door. There was silence. "She didn't escape did she?!" concluded Raine, her heart pounding in her ears. All the blood seemed to drain out of her, leaving her cold. What would the others say?

That's when Fern murmured, "You okay, R- Raine?"

Raine exhaled with relief, "Thank goodness that you're still here."

"Of course I am! Where would I go? Why won't you all trust me?!" snapped Fern back in anguish, breathing heavily. Raine couldn't see through the door, but if it wasn't there, she would've seen Fern's eyes flicker red for a moment, before she would get attacked. "Whoa," thought Fern, "Stop it you…"

Her mind responded with, "Oh? Who says so? I do what I want, you're lucky because you'll get a taste of freedom from this pathetic structure in one moment… oops, but you still won't get a break from me!"

Fern wrenched her light green hair. What was wrong with her?!

Meanwhile, Raine just stood outside the room, thinking, "Ouch. Um, okay, I'll just take that ferocity. Don't have a choice anyhow."

Suddenly, Devin just burst into the room with Tai following close behind, and said, "It's time to go. Quickly!" Apparently, he seemed pretty troubled by something that happened, until they heard another roar and Raine quickly flung the door open and Tai sthoved Fern's head (to her surprise) in the sack without another word.

Raine swiftly tread down the ladder and found Talia with a rolling pin, demanding that they'd get out, and that they're lucky that she wouldn't hurt them today. Raine shrunk with fear and just dashed out into the glorious sunlight awaiting them. Outside, she found Candi, looking ready to go for the first time in her life, and Marie still haughty, even though she'd just been yelled at. Talia arrived outside with everyone else and slammed the door.

She called, "Ani, Tai, ready as defense?"

They just nodded silently, eyes wide with fright.

"Good, and sorry about that," she responded, seeing their terror, "But we're short on a week's rations now."

Marie replied, "Well, better eaten than never."

Talia just rolled her eyes, attempting to calm her nerves. With a pointing motion, the advancement began.

Raine strolled silently, watching Devin carry the lumber, than to Ani carrying the heavy weapon. Her eyes then swung to Tai who was joking with Candi, she was glad that they had returned to their cheerful mood, which lightened everyone else's mood. A few gunshots were fired, before a creature was vanquished. It tumbled to the ground with a finished groan and despawned. Raine then felt the the shade of the trees overhead, flicker upon her face. Warm and coolness, it felt nice, and when she opened her eyes, revealing her extremely, dark-brown eyes. A shiver was sent through her body—but definitely not from the breeze. She looked in front of her, where did Fern go? Wasn't she supposed to be tied… oh- oh no. The rope that was tied to a wooden board wasn't attached to anything else on the other end. "Fern!" she yelped. She peered ahead and saw Fern, dashing into the forests. "She's getting away!" she cried to everyone. Where was Fern going?! The sack wasn't on her head anymore and she was hit by full sunlight. Only darkness could get her, what was going on? Talia exclamored and chased after Fern, but her ankle prevented her from going too far. That was when Devin made eye contact with Raine, as if reviewing all the lessons he taught her, she knew it, the one who had the greatest chance of finding Fern, was the one with the most agility here— it meant her.


	10. Singled Out

**Thank you so much to all readers who have made it to here! Celebrating this chapter, I hope that you enjoy all of the action put into this! Leave a review if here if you think that there's room for improvement or loved the action! Without furtherado, enjoy it!**

Raine dashed after Fern fell behind and as Talia cursed at her blasted ankle for always tormenting her. Raine yelled as she faltered over the shrubbery, "Fern! Fern, get back here! Where are you going? I know that you don't want to hurt us, but if you get injured, we'll feel hurt just as much. Fer- aahh!"

Raine staggered and as she attempted to tug her leg to go further, her foot wouldn't budge. Raine held her breath and looked down. Something was grabbing at her and preventing her from going farther.

"Oh, phew," she sighed. It wasn't a hand or anything, just a thorny plant that caught the hem of her sock. She looked behind her. They had just left the sunny fields and arrived at this gloomier place.

Tall, misshapen trees surrounded her, casting their dreadful shadows on every patch of the ground. There was few undergrowth, only consisting of sparse patches of grass and thorny, clusters of shrubs. Raine tugged at the hem of her white sock as she heard Fern's footsteps' pattering become softer and softer, but suddenly, she heard a rustle in the bushes, and then the pattering got louder and louder!

Raine tugged at her sock and to her satisfaction, it finally came off, before she collapsed onto the ground. Then, she looked up and to her terror, her eyes immediately met pure black eyes with only a glint of white in the center and she screamed. Raine almost had to shove her fist in her mouth to stop her from screaming for she realized that it was Cyndi!

"Oh my goodness," exclamored Raine, "I'm so glad to see you, Cyndi! We can't get out of here right now though."

Cyndi replied, her voice monotonous, "Of course we're not going anywhere."

"So you saw Fern then? We need to find her and later, Eve too, but I don't know where she..."

To Raine's surprise, Cyndi suddenly threw a punch and caught Raine's face. Then, Cyndi threw a kick, and Cyndi's foot caught Raine in the stomach, causing Raine to go short of breath.

"Ouch! Huff, huff. What did you do that for?" deplored Raine. Her injuries throbbed with pain as she staggered back and… did she just see Cyndi's eyes glint red? She confirmed it as soon as Cyndi screeched like a madman and threw back her hair wildly, her eyes remaining red now. Cyndi clutched at her head as her breath went raspy.

Raine stayed paralyzed. Should she run, or stay and try to help Cyndi?

Swiftly, Cyndi's breath stabilized, but not to Raine's relief, Cyndi immediately pounced like a cat and pinned her to the ground. Through the haze of cinder-black hair, Cyndi's mind was going mad inside, thoughts zooming here and there. She was trapped from her true nature. It felt as if a parasite had taken over Cyndi's body. It was a game of predator versus prey, and Cyndi had just lost control.

Meanwhile, Raine was shrieking with pure terror as Cyndi's eyes were staring into her soul. She was holding Cyndi back, and neither girls would give up their fight with one another. Cyndi finally was able to release one hand and she threw a punch, but Raine's free hand caught her fist and threw Cyndi's arm back aside.

What made the terror even stronger was the fact that Cyndi's jaws were mindlessly snapping like a mad dog's. It was obvious that Cyndi had gotten zombified and wanted to turn Raine into another one of these evil beings. Spit went flying from Cyndi's mouth as her greasy hair drooped, covering half of her eyes that were frozen with an evil, hungry stare. Cyndi would've made a perfect werewolf at a cosplay, but this wasn't a joke.

Raine's footing was slipping as Cyndi pushed her further and further back across the sparsely-covered ground. "I'm sorry to do this," gasped Raine, "But…" and with that, she hurled Cyndi to face the rocky wall with a tremendous amount of force. Raine raised her foot to give a swift kick to knock Cyndi's abnormal figure against the stone, but to her disbelief, her efforts were in vain. Cyndi caught Raine's foot and rammed Raine against the wall! Raine thought it was definitely a fatality for her when she felt Cyndi clamp her teeth onto her leg… but it didn't pierce through. She felt the gnawing grow stronger like a dog tearing at a chew toy, but havoc still hadn't struck yet. Raine didn't know whether she should appreciate her extra time at life, or to depreciate the extra pain this time was buying.

"Might as well watch myself die," thought Raine docilely and glumly, and she opened her eyes reluctantly. To her amazement, even though Cyndi was trying really hard to infect her with a bite, she couldn't pierce through her foot if she hadn't pierced through her shoe yet! Looking at that twisted, hideous face, Raine realized that— the fight could go on! Not waiting for her shoe to relent at any moment, Raine tossed her other shoe up into her hand and slapped Cyndi with it. "Snap out of it!" she reprimanded, "You're not infesting me today."

To her abhor, Cyndi suddenly paused in her haste— and tossed her head up with hysterical, nerve-wracking laughter. "Oh, perhaps I won't," she cackled in an irregular, powerful-sounding, feminine voice. "But they will," she sneered, arms crossed in a haughty position.

With a yelp, Raine felt clammy hands grab her throat from behind her, but it wasn't Cyndi's. Cyndi just stood there, blood-red eyes gleaming with glee as Raine swung her head frantically to find that Eve and Fern were behind her and wore the same, mad smiles on their cheeks. Eve grabbed at Raine's garments as Raine tugged at it desperately, her shoe in her hand, slipping onto the ground.

Suddenly, a shot crackled through the air. Bang! Then another shot rang and her captors let go of her in a frenzy, causing Raine to fly back, and luckily, her head had landed on a patch of fauna, so no damage was caused. Raine felt so light-headed though, that when she saw two more figures emerge from the clearing and a few creatures rise from the soil, she felt like she was going to faint.

Slowly, Raine let her eyelids close, but before she could finish doing so, she heard someone hectically calling for her and then she felt strong arms kindle her.

"Raine? Raine! Please, don't go!" she heard Devin shout as he brushed a strand of hair off of Raine's darling cheeks, "We need you. I- I…" but before Devin could finish his plea, a smug, feminine, and mature voice rang through the sounds of battle.

"ENOUGH!" rang the voice through the moor.

"That couldn't be Talia," percepted Raine, for the voice was more of a woman's rather than some teen's. This voice didn't ask for attention, it meant dominance.

Raine awoke with fright and clung to Devin out of fear for she had just come so close to death. She found everyone else in their group, frozen in a defensive position, while the contaminated creatures stood still, oppressing their will to destroy. Raine seethed when Cyndi came into her perspective, standing in the center of an open field of green grass that was covered with the shadows of morbid trees now.

No one had to ponder for long about what "Cyndi" was planning to do when she put on a ravenous, freaky smile and shouted, "If you want a fight, I'll give you a fight!" With that, she stamped her foot and Raine was shocked to see sound waves appear. Too late to dodge the waves, all of her friends fell to the ground the moment the supersonic waves passed through their avatar's bodies. It was intolerable, hearing her friends scream in pain on the ground, acting as if they'd just been tasered. Raine felt the same, ultimate pain run through her corpse as those waves whooshed through Devin and her too. They tumbled to the ground, bodies writhing with pain. "I refuse to go down like this!" screamed Raine in her mind, "I refuse to see everyone around me suffer again!"

Instead of cold pain convulsing through her blood now, Raine felt it sooth and heat suddenly return to her blood. Another sound wave had erupted, and it was now extremely difficult to keep her eyes open, to watch for any other attacks, but what Raine saw instead shocked her. Her left hand gave a violent jolt before springing into five fingers again— a semi-realistic, human hand! Raine gasped in pain once the transformation was complete. Unlike the others, she didn't enjoy looking human-like that much again. She tossed her hair, and then saw the shock that Devin's face held. He was recognizable like everyone else. They all looked the almost the exact same as their avatars. Marie still had her auburn hair, leather jacket, and jeans, Candi with her same, sweet accessories and light-pink hair, Tai in his professional, scholar suit, Talia still in her dark outfit, Ani still rolling down the hill in her crayon costume, and Melody in her rock-star jacket, jeans and white shirt, while Devin was in his athletic jacket, headphones, and sleek, black pants with sneakers.

Raine realized the differences that she had gone through, from looking at the reflection of herself within Devin's eyes. Her outfit was the same, but her hair, that rippled in the breeze, had reversed back into a mud-brown color, rather than her avatar's normal, black hair. Simultaneously, her eyes went from a dark brown to a glimmering, aquamarine-blue color. She turned away and blushed, she didn't feel comfortable like this, it- it gave her too much to remember. There was one question that lingered in her mind though, "Why did Cyndi reverse their forms from game avatars to their semi-realistic forms? Perhaps it was just a (really painful) side effect.

She looked at Cyndi's figure. Cyndi, too, had gone through the transformation along with Fern and Eve, whom she'd infected. Cyndi was now wobbling side to side like a punching bag. Abruptly, the sky dimmed and the winds' speeds picked up, almost carrying Candi away if Tai hadn't snatched her out of the air last second. Cyndi's head began to release soot as if she was a boiling pot of water, and suddenly, her body collapsed into a crumpled heap, and to Raine's horror, a foggy spirit drifted out of her body and landed next to Cyndi's crumpled heap, and the spirit began to reform.

The moment the spirit's feet touched the ground, it seemed to suck up all life. The grass sizzled instantly and turned into ashes, before being carried away by the strong wind. The formation began to fully take place, and from the spirit appeared a sinister lady, carrying a vile smile and bloody, red eyes jutting out against her sickly, green skin. Her red hair meant bloodshed as her yellow teeth screamed 'Pain!'

The lady cackled, sending shivers through Raine's spine. The air might've dropped ten degrees in an instant. Finally, the being pulled her face into a sneer. "I am Malice," she said, "Queen of the Undead. And you preposterous children dare to step into this happy, little game, thinking that it's just a joke. You think that all that I've ever wanted is for your pathetic forms to join my army. This girl here," she pointed at Cyndi's body, "Has paid for wasting my time. She looked to similar to who I wanted." A moment of silence erupted until… "

We're not pathetic, you're pathetic," snapped Talia. Half-heartedly, everyone else couldn't help it, but agree. This vile being just trampled innocent bystanders. Raine had to admit it, "Wow, Talia was really daring to even defend all of them like that, to speak up to a being that might as well have been Death, himself. It was abhorring how this monster just put people under her control, just because they were there or just looked like the wanted someone. Who was that someone?" Raine asked. She gasped when she looked at Talia. Both Cyndi and Talia did have dark hair, dark clothing, and dark eyes. What if…?

"Hmph," barked Malice, "But now that I can differentiate who I want, I can get to them now, thanks to Fern leading all of you to me." With a malevolent sneer, Malice pulled a staff out from nowhere and slammed its tip to the ground,

Raine's stomach plummeted, thinking that it was another supersonic wave, but even worse, dirt began to stir and instantly, more undead creatures rose from the ground. They would've had easy shots at the hungry creatures, but the windy weather became so intense that it almost swept them off of their feet. Their hair whipped their faces, blinding their view as the undead approached with ease. Malice, their queen was just a blur, zooming here and there. "Talia, watch out!" Raine wanted to shout, but her voice was carried away by the loud shrieking of the wind. That's when Malice wasn't getting closer and closer to Talia, but right up to Raine's face. Suddenly, the wind died, and Raine found herself staring into those merciless eyes.

"Now, I know who you are," laughed Malice triumphantly, seeing Raine's helpless expression. Seeing the fear in Raine's eyes, she laughed and said, "You hardly even know yourself well, don't you?"

All at once, Raine knew it. It wasn't Talia that was singled out. Malice had singled Raine out.


	11. Disapproval

Raine retreated a few steps, and staggered. She was lucky that even though she was semi-realistic, she still remained with two legs, rather than one. The harder that she tried not to stare into Malice's humorless eyes, the more that she found herself tempted to do so. There was no point in running; she might get stabbed in the back if she did so. Raine took in her surroundings. To her dismay, Devin was being seperated away from her by zombies as he swung his sword frantically at the zombies' bobbling heads.

Malice rolled her eyes in disdain. In order to force this absurd girl to face her, she had to jab a sharp fingernail underneath Raine's chin, forcing Raine to look up at the overlord.

Raine felt the sharp fingernail, press under her chin warningly. She could feel her mind tingle, warning her that layers of skin were slowly being cut if she kept refusing to look up. Raine thought that she saw stains of dried blood on Malice's black fingernails as she was forced to face this tyrant. Her eyes met the Queen of the Undead's gravestone-gray eyes as Raine shivered and tried not to stammer.

Malice hissed, annoyed by this girl's slow pace, "Let me repeat that, child. You don't know yourself well now, do you?"

"What do you mean by that?" Raine whimpered as the cold wind seeped through her red sweater, "I know myself best. I know my own thoughts. I know my life's story. Therefore, I should know myself best."

Malice tilted her green head as her red hair cascaded down her shoulders and onto her frayed, black dress. She cackled, "Perhaps, but you're not good at solving your own mysteries." She tittered at Raine's questioning face, "It is a simple compromise, little one. You give me what I want, and I let you and your friends go."

Raine felt Malice's needle-like fingernail jab harder and cut a few more layers of skin. Raine looked to the others pleadingly an answer; she didn't want to make a decision involving all of their fates alone. Hearing what Malice had said, Devin frantically shouted, "NO! Don't, Raine!" Devin believed that it was too good to be true. Malice had put Fern, Eve, and Cyndi up for kills, so she couldn't be merciful to them. Talia nodded in agreement, but she didn't think about Raine basically becoming a hostage now. If the deal was not made, then Raine was up for harming.

This was all that Raine needed, she knew that the others would agree to if they weren't so distracted by horrific zombies.

Raine glared back at Malice, and in a daring tone, drew all of her wits together for this moment. She shook with anger as her cut lip stung for what Malice had done and refused, "No. What you've done to Fern, Eve, and Cyndi was pitiless, they could be stuck like that forever. You hurt them to the point where they secluded themselves without a choice. We don't need your deals. You'll just let us go? Ya right, go towards Death's hands, you mean. I don't negotiate with unfair people like you."

Malice hissed. Raine wasn't sure whether she had guessed correctly, but judging by Malice's sudden, blank reaction, she took it as a 'yes, that she had read Malice's mind. The Queen of the Undead's face contorted into fury at her revealed plan and she screeched, "Well, guess we'll have to do it the hard way then!" And Raine felt the sharp fingernail pierce through her skin.

Raine felt a drop of blood ooze out, before Malice morphed into a whirling coil of gray smoke. All at once, Raine heard shrieks echo all around her as the world spun faster and faster. She couldn't tell whether it was her own screams or anyone else's but each was bloodcurdling. Raine felt as if she was going to vomit on herself before her head tilted from facing the landscape to the sky, and her eyes rolled from her blue irises to blank white patches, and her world went black.


	12. Despair

What Raine did not see was that at the sight of her plummet, Devin had demolished the wave of zombies with two wide swings and rushed to her, just in time to catch her before she hit the ground. Raine had clearly been weakened and could not catch herself from tumbling backwards as her skin turned paler and paler by the minute. Her skin felt colder and colder by the touch, the pink in her cheeks draining. She could not make an effort to awaken, and perhaps, she would not awaken. Devin shook Raine's motionless form and shouted for any signal of awakening, before noticing the shallow cut underneath her chin. A red stain loomed there, and it reminded him of what had happened to Candi. Tai had told him that the red that emerged from Candi's sleeve really wasn't blood, but ketchup. Apparently, Candi liked to always keep ketchup with her just in case, and it was lucky that she wasn't bleeding for they would not know how their immune systems would react to "zombie viruses".

This definitely wasn't ketchup though, and Devin gasped, and hacked at the particles of ash in the air. When Malice had disappeared into a coil of gray haze, it had touched Raine and vanished on the spot. Raine couldn't be… Devin refused to believe it. "What did she do to her?!" he hollered as he could feel tears emerging at the edge of his eyes. He refused to back away from Raine's possibly infected form. She was still alive— for now. He wasn't sure if Raine could hear him weep, but that didn't matter. He knew that he would be there for her till the end. He took off his glasses, shielded his face from view, and let the tears fall. There was no point to withdraw them, so he made no effort to hide his despair. He did not hear the others approach, but he knew that they were there now. He could feel their sorrow and helplessness. He felt a surge of anger that they weren't doing anything else but stand there, but he swallowed his fury, for he was couldn't help either, all he could do was just kneel there and acting as company to Raine.

Marie wanted to tell Devin to back away from Raine's possibly infected form, but she did not when she sensed the sorrow pouring from his heart.

"Will he be alright?" whimpered Candi as Melody charged towards her cousin while Ani pinned Fern's infested form down on the ground and sat on her to keep her still. Melody rushed up to Raine wordlessly as Tai responded to Candi, "We can hope. We can comfort. Human strengths are all put aside for one thing, empathy." After he finished speaking, Tai advanced towards Devin and kneeled, and put his one arm around Devin, and the other one around Candi, who clung tearfully at his side. As they struggled to battle frustration away, they didn't know that Raine was battling too.


	13. Exit

**Thank you this time to whoever that decided to read the entire 12 chapters within a week. Also, special thanks to my youngest brother, Alton, who screams at every cliffhanger and makes a joke out of everything. (He told me that Raine should've just poked Malice in the eye and then blasted her through the sun [like Goku].)**

Raine awoke with a shock to find herself in a dark room. She couldn't see any embankments nor feel them. The place gave the knowing feeling as one would get with the vast universe. The emptiness without air in this mysterious place gave a steady feeling, and she didn't need to worry, for she didn't need to breathe here. The chill of the air, slowly turned warm, as she noticed a faint, blue glow being emitted from the door in front of her. Yes, it was a door, and it was almost in the middle of nowhere.

"I wonder what's on the other side," thought Raine, before the welcoming, blue light, suddenly turned an eerie red, and Raine realized…

"No!" she shrieked. This was the doorway to and from her mind. She somehow knew that it was like the doorway where her soul entered and exited from, where heaven or hell was waiting for her.

Raine slammed the spirit-like figure of herself against the door and screamed, but there was no sound due to the fact that there was no air for the sound to bounce off of. She knew that Malice was on the other side of the door as the red light grew stronger and stronger. No sound was necessary for fear to prolong. If Malice got through to the other side, she would be a slave to her. Soul on soul, it was a fight for control.

"Someone... anything! Help me, please, please, please!" thought Raine as she could feel her feet slipping as the door was being forced. Immediately, ghostly figments of furniture began flying out from the dark and pressing against the door with her. There was an elaborate coffee table, a couch, a potted plant, and even a refrigerator! It was like an 'FBI, OPEN UP!' situation, but Raine wasn't the criminal in this crime scene.

She pinned herself more vigorously against the door, but her footing was continuously slipping. "How strong could she be?" questioned Raine. For the last time here, she screamed to Malice (but no words could be heard), "Get out, get out, GET OUT!"

[Meanwhile]

Devin refused to mop up his tears as the wind grew stronger and stronger. The wind didn't seem to blow past though, raher it seemed to be dragging them toward a centerpoint. Lightning sparked as thunder crackled. Briskly, they heard Cyndi's hypnotized figure hit the ground with a _thump_. Her body had seized up in the midst of slashing at Melody, and toppled. Her red eyes went wide as she was upon the ground, before she blinked several times, and they returned to their normal color. Cyndi was back to normal!

Devin watched, jaws dropping with shock, as the same happened to Eve, who was dangling in a tree, due to Candi and Tai dropping her there. Fern had gone through the same process, as Ani was still crushing her with her crayon costume.

"Hiya, hiya, hiya!" cried Ani, bopping Fern on the head with the tip of her giant, red crayon costume.

"Hey! Ouch! Cut it out!" fretted Fern, blocking more hits to the head.

Even though the sky was now dark, there were no clouds in sight, nor the smell telling one whether rainfall would come or not. The wind started howling faster and faster, and they could now hear sparks crackling, but with no sign of lightning bolts filling the sky anymore. Blud sparks appeared in the center of the field of dead grass. Swiftly, a sudden blaze of light stunned them all as the shadows were wiped away.

When Devin's vision was restored, he found a dark purple portal awaiting them. Cyndi's freedom must've caused it to appear, they were free from this place at last! Devin could guarantee that it was a portal since the last time they saw Cyndi summon clothes for Raine.

Raine…

"Raine, Raine? We gotta' go now; wake up!" Devin hoped that she would stir from her trance like Cyndi, Eve, and Fern, but the placid expression still remained frozen upon her face.

Tai yelled, "C'mon, Devin, we need to go!" Talia had already leapt into the swirling circle without asking any questions, they were taking no chances in staying here any longer.

"But we can't leave Raine here," replied Devin sorrowfully.

Tai replied, "Course we won't, smart boy. You think that I'd do the same with Candi? C'mon let's go, we can't wait any longer." Before Tai could get another word out, Candi had already dragged him halfway to the portal.

Devin ruffled Raine's hair sadly as she still remained motionless. He was carrying her out of here, whether she was alive or dead.


	14. Spirits Arise

Raine pondered about the catastrophes on the outside world. It was heart-wrenching at the thought of being forced to slaughter her friends on a desolate battlefield if she lost control of her corpse. She could see their terror and their blood, strewing the dirt and remains of grass. Because of her diversion, she suddenly lost her footing. "NO, what an idiot I am!" she shrieked in her mind. She threw herself against the door once more, but the damage was already done. To her terror, the door in this spirity realm went ajara bit, and Raine saw Malice's black high heel step in, before a _whoosh_ filled the room as the light took over the darkness of her surrounding, filling the endless chamber with its coolness.

"So," thought Raine, "This is how it feels to lose control of yourself. I'm sorry I failed you all, my friends. I'm sorry." And she closed her eyes through her silent tears… but was this dying? Even with her eyes closed, she could still see the blinding, blue-gray light of the room grow stronger and stronger. She could feel herself reform; she was no longer in a ghostly state. Raine opened her eyes inquisitively and…

She was no longer in the spirity realm, rather, she was back in the game! "Devin!" she cried with relief feeling his grasp in her hand. Devin was so overjoyed to find that she had awakened that he might've embraced her right there if he wasn't already dizzy from watching lavender and white lines swirl around them.

Raine was stunned by their new surroundings; where were they? They were apparently being dragged by the air towards somewhere, as shades of purple swirled around them, making it seem like traveling through a whirlpool. Their hair whipped around their faces as they laughed for joy at their freedom. Candi and Tai were fighting in front of them for who would go through to the other side first. They had left Zombie High School! Through everyone's cheers of triumph and their zombified friends' renewed freedom, no one had noticed that a dark purple hole waited at the end for them, and Melody had fallen through it first— headfirst.


	15. Not a Princess

Melody crashed onto the marble floor with an earsplitting crackle. The purple portal loomed overhead and flashed as Melody groaned and rubbed her skull beneath her short, cyan blue hair and black beanie. She took off her beanie and growled under her breath as she dabbed trickles of hot blood streamed down her neck like a waterfall. She questioned angrily, "Where are the others? They should be here by now. What a bunch of slowpokes they are." Her brain gave quick, angry, and abnormal spasms. Good thoughts flitted away, as pessimistic ones surmised.

The portal spun and flashed even more before coughing up Tai, Fern, Eve and Cyndi. Ani then came and slid two meters before skidding to a stop as feathers flew everywhere, tickling their noses. She was obviously not in her crayon costume anymore if white feathers covered the floor and buried Ani in them. The portal's light throbbed once more, before Talia leapt out and landed on her feet— and collapsed onto her weak, right ankle. Candi came next, rocketing out of the sky at high speed and knocking Tai off his feet as he was adjusting his glasses. Eve laughed at their collision before saying, "Are you okay? At least you caught her in your arms though, Tai."

Marie agreed, "Ya, nice catch— with your face!"

As the others laughed, including the couple, Devin, then came, holding Raine's hand [as they drifted serenely down, rather than dropping like an earthquake.

Just as their feet touched the marble flooring, a scream erupted, and when it died, it's echoes still shook the vast, elaborate room.

"What's going on?" inquired Raine frantically, "You're not hurt are…"

Talia screeched, the owner of the scream, "Hurt?! Internally, yes. And if you want to know why, it's because I'm wearing makeup!" With that, she wrung her hands in with resentment at it.

One look at what Talia was now wearing, made them gasp; it was clear to them that their outfits had changed elaborately. Talia's warrior gear was gone, and had been replaced by a poofy, black gown that was studded with black opals at the edges of each layer of ruffles. A headband, resembling a tall arch, wrapped around Talia's newly-braided hair. Fern smiled, saying that she looked nice, but Talia responded with a shriek, before panting for air and muttering, "Um, thank you?"

Marie, meanwhile was pounding the floor with both fists, bubbling with laughter at Tali's panic. Fern, meanwhile, wore a lime-green dress that flowed behind her as she kept her ice cream cone hat. At the tip of the hat though, now had a white veil, which flowed back as she walked, making it seem like a princess hat. Her entire outfit glittered like ice from the diamonds, there was no doubt that this outfit also represented her character, which was simply sweet and wondrous.

Marie, on the other hand, was now wiping tears of laughter away. She wasn't wearing anything that was considered formal. Her's was rather wild. She held a country gal's look. Her two ponytails had been whisked away and were let loose in curls. She was permitted to keep her black t-shirt and plaid jacket, but instead of her jeans, she was now in a maroon, riding skirt.

Unanticipatedly, an unfamiliar voice warned almost kindly and joyously, "Look out from above!" Cyndi threw herself on the ground before a _crash_ occurred, but luckily, no one was hurt. What they found though, awed them.

Eve gasped, "Oh wow."

None of them could believe their eyes, but it was clearly genuine when it stamped its hooves on the clean floor. In a magnificent position in front of them now, stood a pegasus with red, orange, and yellow wings that were tipped with black like fire and ashes. It's mane rippled like a wildfire, as he swished his tail pompously. It's rider, a girl with a yellow skirt and a white, buttoned-up, long-sleeved shirt, greeted them. "Sorry about that," she smiled kindly and adjusted the sunflowers in her blonde hair. Her green eyes sparkled like summer's leaves as she jumped off of the pegasus' back. She patted the pegasus and decided to introduce him, "This is Blaze. He hasn't stretched is wings for a while, so he got a bit reckless today."

The pegasus barked and flapped his wings indignantly, "Ya, and that wouldn'tve happened if you hadn't locked me in your room!"

"I didn't lock it, you just can't open the door without your paws apparently."

Cyndi suddenly stopped her as she smoothed out her ornate, black dress and adjusted her headdress that looked like a necklace, but was put on her head. The ruby dangled a bit, before slowing to a stop. Cyndi asked, "Um, and did your pegasus just bark, and did you say something about _paws_ instead of hooves?"

The bright girl answered Cyndi, "Oh, yes. You see, Blaze is really a hippo in real life."

Candi gasped excitedly, as she shook her sweet pink gown so ecstatically that it bumped into Ani's feathery, flowing dress, "A hippo?"

Blaze snapped, "A hippo?!"

"Naw, I'm just joking," laughed the bright girl, "He's really a puppy in reality who works for… er… never you mind. Anyway…"

Seeing that she wanted to change the subject desperately, Fern questioned, "So what's your name? I'm Fern, and there's too many names here to get correctly, so I'll let them introduce themselves."

"Oh, I'm Magnificence Destiny Grace Joy!" she responded, and burst into laughter seeing their stunned faces, "But you can call me, 'Joy'."

Marie approached with a mischievous smile and said, "Well, there's a new jokester in town. I think we'll get along just swell."

"Ya, _swell_ ," whimpered Joy, "Because you just stepped on Blaze's hoof."

"It doesn't hurt now, does…" Before Marie could finish, she got kicked across the room by the pegasus and landed against a marble wall with a _thud_. Marie sighed before collapsing on the floor, "Dang, I think that I hate horses now."

Blaze stamped, "I'm a magical pony, not a…"

Joy stroked Blaze's mane and said, "Now, now, be a good boy and I'll give you a treat."

Blaze mumbled, "Not after I turned your room into a shredded newspaper from lack of exercise."

Joy questioned, "What was that?"

"Er… nothing!" giggled the pegasus nervously.

Raine surveyed everyone else's fancy clothing as Joy pestered the pegasus suspiciously.

Eve's dress was ocean-blue and cyan blue. A thick, gold headband wrapped around her hair like the moon as gold speckles decorated her dress like stars in the sky. She had long sleeves on her dress, but it left her shoulders uncovered. She looked as though she might be a fortune teller.

Melody's hair was still cut short and roughly, but her rock star's outfit had become a blue dress that touched the floor and flowed behind her. Her black beanie in hand, suddenly became a tiara with a glittering, blue sapphire for the centerstone.

Raine decided to compliment her, "You look fantastic, Melody!"

To her surprise, Melody returned with a scowl. Melody thought, "Hmph, you think that my rockstar outfit must be garbage compared to this gown, don't you? You think that I look amazingly _bad_ against you."

Raine, really, was perplexed and a little bit hurt with Melody's unfriendly reaction, "Why is Melody frowning at me? It is a good intention. Well, alright then if you're not going to be nice." Raine looked to Devin for comfort, what she found instead, shocked her. He was in a tuxedo that was identical to Tai's, and he was blushing at the sight of her! Raine gasped and looked down upon herself, "Oh!" She was in a magnificent, purple gown with layers of lace, swept the floor gracefully. No jewels serenaded the fabric, and she didn't receive any rings, nor necklaces, but on her head, sat a tiara encrusted with diamonds and a large blue sapphire in the center that brought out her blue eyes. No makeup was needed on Raine apparently as she beamed at her wondrous outfit. Her hair was mostly loose now and curled as a ponytail still bound the top half. The elastic that bound her hair also had a jeweled flower stuck to it. She whispered, "This is… nice."

"You look wondrous," Devin imposed, making Raine blush furiously.

Suddenly, an angry shout erupted from an unfamiliar voice, "Why are you _all_ late to class?!"

Joy fell off of Blaze's back at that outcry and stammered, "I-I-I… I am so sorry… sir."

It was clearly one of the enforcers here, but he wasn't dressed like a scholar, nor like a police officer. Raine shuddered at the sight of his black, wretched robes that dragged upon the clean floor, staining the nice place dreadfully. His hair was so greasy that Marie whispered to Ani that he would be their next ice bucket challenge victim.

Raine stared unbelievably at them, "Wait, so _you_ were the ones that dumped ice on me back in that cupcake shop?"

"Yup," they nodded, and burst out laughing.

"What? But I thought that Devin did it."

"Oh no, he was just crossing by us when we did it, and you tackled the wrong person— then you punched him!"

Raine's cheeks turned red out of shame for her mistake. She blurted, "I- I'm so sorry, Devin! I…"

He smiled and gently cupped her hands in his, "No need for that."

Candi was now whispering to Marie, Eve, and Ani, "No, let's confront this professor's greasy hair with shampoo and see how fast he runs!" The girls roared with laughter until the hunchbacked professor snapped, "Back to Chemistry—NOW!"

They trudged down the hallway, following the stomping professor as Joy tagged along. Joy whimpered, "He doesn't really mean Chemistry, he means Potions."

Devin asked, "What's the difference anyway?"

Joy responded, "This place is magical. You see, we're in Royale High and…"

"ROYALE HIGH?!" shrieked Talia and Marie.


	16. Brewing Up Trouble

Marie groaned, "Urgh, why can't we be in Roblox High School 2?"

Talia lamented, "Why can't we be in RoBeats?"

"Or Kingdom Life?" Candi groaned.

"Still sweet though," Raine answered, glimpsing Candi's dazzling, candy-shaped jewels.

They entered the most dreary classroom of all time. "Okay, not sweet," Raine gulped. The classroom was in a wretched state; it was a janitor's nightmare. The entire floor was dug into a huge, dark hole with a bottom so far down, that they couldn't see it's end. Filled in this enormous, filthy hole was green slime that bubbled, hissed, and spurted fire every few moments. Somehow, black desks and stools managed to stay afloat on top of small, circular platforms, but a few were not so fortunate. Fumes soared about the room as stains drooled off the wall.

"Yeh," whimpered Joy, "The difference here is that you don't use stuff like Potassium or Magnesium, you use these mysterious, colored liquids to create stuff magical, yes, _magical_ solutions. These solutions include stuff like Fire-Breathing Potions, Growth Potions, Love Potions, etc. And if you fail…"

"SILENCE!" snapped the professor, pounding his grimy desk so hard that slime flew off from it and onto the walls. Blaze, who was watching from outside, even retreated a bit. He murmured, "Reckless enough to convince others to ditch class. Thinking because you're royals, you can't get into trouble. Thinking that you won't get detention in the dungeons for being utter fools and making earthquakes out in the hallways. Instead, you shall all be punished by me. Everyone take a seat now. And if you're lucky enough, your desk won't sink."

"Ugh, in these dresses?" complained Talia, tiptoeing to a seat in the corner. Eve got burned by a floating ball of expanding gas, before she reached a seat against the wall. Fern nearly fell into the ooze if Cyndi hadn't grabbed her. Raine took the nearest seat behind Devin's as Melody tried to avoid sitting right across from RAine, but all the other seats were taken.

Raine mumbled, "Wish I wasn't in this gown right now." As if on cue, the gown immediately vanished in sparkles and was replaced by her usual, purple tank top and short, cotton jeans.

Talia gasped, "How did you do that?"

"I don't…"

The professor had snapped for silence once more before he sneered and said, "Well, well, you little rats. Today, you're going to be put into a trial. Eve raised her hand, but the professor did not call on her, but pointed and said, "No, not a court case, but a test." He clapped his hands and recipes appeared on their desks. "You've been given five recipes," he said, "Fail to make each within its time limit, and you'll be dropped (he pointed at the green goo) into the Potion of Unknown Effects."

Candi blurted out, "But why are the effects unknown?"

"Because" said the professor smiling evilly, "It is made out of all the potions my students've ever failed to make. Oh yes, and if three of you fail, you _all_ get dropped. You have two minutes to study your recipes. Afterward... _ahem_ , it's game time."

Raine scrambled to pick up her five recipes. "Ugh," she thought with one look at the tarnished pages, "Joy wasn't joking. The recipes included some revolting reactions. There was a potion that could make one spurt out eight legs, another that'll make one's hair grow faster, and another one that could enlargen your eyes. The last two's effects weren't that bad. One could give you fairy wings, while the other one was a simple, sleeping draught. Pictures of the order of colored chemicals they needed, lined the bottom of the pages. No measurements were needed, one just had to dump the amount already given in the small, glass vials and they'd magically refill. Raine knew this because when Cyndi saved Fern, she knocked a few over, to the professor's annoyance, and they magically began refilling and spilling until they were put back into place.

"Time's up!" shouted the professor, "Now let's see what you got." With a snap of his fingers, to everyone's relief, the recipes remained, but time began. Raine whispered to herself, "Red, blue, orange, yellow…" She was starting on the hard ones first, so she wouldn't have to bother later. She tried very hard to concentrate, but with the tinkling of glass and an occasional explosion from the green goo beneath them, it was difficult. Marie was grumbling in the corner, "Dang, wish I was an animal now; that way, I can stay outside just like that pegasus."

Within another minute, the professor clapped, the noise making them jump by saying, "30 seconds left for your first potion, and oh… Did I forget to mention that your potions have side effects as you mix?" Ferns' potion let out a spurt of green gas promptly as they freaked out. The professor continued, hands behind his back as if he was enjoying the spectacle, and said, "Did I also forget to mention that the slightest touch of your potion can cause some of its effects to take place instantaneously?" Shrieks of terror broke out as he snapped and gloves appeared on their desks. They continued as someone coughed in the corner just as the professor collected their first potions and laughed, "Oh, and I forgot; breathing in the fumes of your potions can also affect you if you're unlucky."

Raine growled and thought, "No wonder why some people were starting to nod off to sleep." Those who had decided to do the Sleeping Draught first were rubbing their eyes vigorously to try and stay awake. Marie's head was bobbling as she wished that she could sleep, but their lives depended on this.

The next session for their next potion had begun, before they were even halfway through, Tai got up and stretched, before picking up four vials and placing it on the professor's desk. The professor nodded in approval as the others gaped in amazement. He had finished the rest within their second session! Talia, seeing that Tai had finished up so quickly, sped up her pace. The second potions was now due. Everyone had finished in time and were either swinging their legs anxiously or awaiting their reluctant approval at the professor's desk. Melody was behind though, she swung her head around again and again, hoping that they could stall more time for her. Raine was back in her seat now, and watched as Melody frantically swung back to staring at her recipe, rather than the colored chemicals in front or her. She negligently grabbed the wrong colored chemical before Raine could stop her, she dumped it in. Melody was still looking down at the recipe, and did not notice her mistake— until the solution's container was now rattling quickly as bubbles formed at an increasing rate.

Cyndi questioned agitatedly, "Melody, what did you do?"

Everyone, except the professor's, eyes were wide opened at the unusual reaction. Melody clambered to the edge of her circle platform as the professor watched intently. Just as the bubbles reached the brim of the glass cylinder— _boom!_ An explosion occurred, sending Melody plunging into the green goo headfirst. She was evident that Melody had just been their first contestant eliminated. Raine was negligent to that though, and shrieked for Melody. When no response came, she was ready to dive in and after her.

Devin saw Raine prepared to forfeit herself, blocked intercepted her dive in her frenzy. When Raine struggled and screeched that it was her cousin and therefore her responsibility, he to swung her back onto her stool and told her, "No. You stay here and I'll go after her."

"Don't be stupid, Devin."

"I could say the same for you," he chuckled, "Now stay and finish your work. We can't afford having one more member dropping in and getting us all dropped in there."

"Wait, one more? We still…" Instead of Raine diving in herself, she found that Devin had dived in for _her_ , leaving her stricken as she watched the closest people to her face the possibility of drowning. She told herself, "No, you told yourself you wouldn't learn to love anymore." She did not need to remember the reason why. She brushed her tears away, and huffed out a breath before she sat down, frustrated, but ready to finish the rest of the potions. It was a relief to the others that she put all of their needs in all and followed instructions, rather than sacrifice them all in an _attempt_ to save a person or two.

Raine soon became finished with her potions— and was also finished with her patience. They still hadn't appeared yet and she lost hold of her fury. She pointed accusingly at the professor who still held a menacing smile. "You!" she screeched, "You monster! If it weren't for you, none of us would be here right now. How could you do this to us?"

The professor opened his mouth to tell her to remain silent, but Raine ended up getting louder.

She yelled, "You shut up! Shut up and talk to me when you have a heart that is worthy enough."

In an instant, it was quite a sight to see. An eruption of panic occurred as Candi was stunning everyone after she swallowed a cloud of pink fumes. Her speech suddenly became jumbled up, and she yelled, "What in the comets could make ribbons fall to the parchment grounds." Surprised to hear herself say something like that, Candi clapped a hand to her mouth.

"What are you saying, Candi?" questioned Marie as Raine turned from the professor to Candi.

Raine wondered, "I wonder, could those fumes have done something with her speech?" The word, 'wonder,' sparked something in her mind, and she blurted apprehensively, "Wonder… Wonderland… She's speaking Riddlish!"

"Riddlish?" Marie answered, "Don't be…"

Candi shushed Marie and pointed to Raine and nodded before saying, "Fancy gowns and caretakers are not needed in a muddy pond. Mud can bring health."

"Oh, I get it," nodded Tai, "CAndi is speaking in riddles. She first said, 'What could've caused treachery to spill like blood on the dry battleground.' Then, she is saying that Marie, in her fancy riding outfit and having her care for Melody is incorrect in apprehending her speech situation, and that Raine, with the mud-colored hair and blue eyes like water has absorbed the situation correctly."

Candi clapped her hands and jumped with thrill and approval, before saying, "Raven-haired twilight glimmers like an owl and is such a good dove to understand sweets."

Tai blushed furiously and quickly looked at Candi with a 'don't-do-that' expression before stating, "Tai with the dark hair holds knowledge that is bright like the stars in the twilight sky and is great at understanding Candi." Tai really understood fully what Candi meant, but he had cropped out the 'dove' part that Candi had said, because it really meant, 'Tai is such a smart guy and a good lover-boy to understand her.'

Raine turned to the professor and snarled, "Enough talk, we've got a bone to break."

"You better step outside and cool down or I'll put a frost potion on you," replied the professor menacingly.

"Ya, I'll chill out when I'm done getting my revenge on you. You took everyone who I've known the longest in a second and now you- you, monster, don't even have the right to talk right now, you murderer. We wouldn't be stuck cluelessly in this situation if it weren't for you!"

"Guess I'll have to do it the hard way then," hissed the man as he reached in a drawer for a light blue potion.

Raine shook her head furiously, "Oh no you don't. _Never_ on my watch." With that, Raine used her full amount of rage and before she could hesitate, she tossed her own, completed potions at the professor, screaming chaotically at the merciless man, "I'll never love a beast like you!" What she did not know was that Devin heard that, and shuddered, for she had no idea of what the goo had done to him as he rescued Melody, who was currently unconscious.

Such a mellow girl was now hurdling over boundaries as the goo bubbled below her. She hurled her potions as if it was a dodgeball game. The first and it nearly missed the professor who ducked, but the contents splashed onto him. Before he could receive the time to dodge the next few, Raine hurled them at lightning speed, and this time, her aim sailed truly right at its target. Raine huffed and attempted to maintain calm now. She fell to her knees before the gruesome effects happened.

"You, idiot!" the professor screeched, "Do you know what could happen if you mix too many po…" but his words were lost when the effects took place. First, he sprouted extra limbs in front of all that was watching; this caused a Fern to throw up into the goo. Then, hair began sprouting and extending at a frightening rate all over his body. Finally, his eyes enlarged as he sprout six more, causing Talia to scream and throw herself against the wall before she could stop herself. The professor had turned into an enormous spider!

He clicked his pincers together, before his red eyes turned to face the button that would drop them all into the goo! Raine didn't see the professor mutate, but she looked up from clutching her head in her hands just in time to see him crawl towards the button with his legs as large as a yardstick!

She yelled, "Uh-uh, Nope, not today." With that, Raine jumped onto her desk, took two steps back and leapt across the room with one bound, fearlessly tackling the giant spider. The spider picked her off and threw her against the wall, but Raine managed to struggle away before he could pound her. He was lighter than she thought, but beneath the array of eight legs, it was difficult to tell where she was now. She raised her black shoe up into the air and batted the spider's pincers that attempted to clamp down against her head. She swung her shoe frantically as the class' reaction was obscured from her view. Raine shoved each hairy leg aside that attempted to cut through her chest. Suddenly, instead of trying to stab her, one arm ambushed her from behind and wrapped around her throat, slowly constricting her windpipe. The ginormous spider held her up in the air as Raine dangled and kicked breathlessly, her face turning blue from lack of air. Triumphantly, it strode towards the button that would drop them all into the goo— until Talia advanced and quickly sliced up one of its arms. The spider reared up and screamed in pain, dropping Raine immediately. Raine fell to the floor, stomach first, before giving Talia a thumbs up and gasping for air. She was fine, and talia did well. Talia returned a sheepish smile before the spider stopped clutching its devastated limb, and picked up Talia before swinging her around the room and slamming her against another wall.

Without thinking, Raine leapt upon the spider's back and yelled, "Giddyup!" She grabbed hold of the spider by the neck and the next thing she knew, she was in a freaky, rodeo show. It was quite a sight, seeing a girl on top of a giant, hairy spider as it thrashed about. Potions of all colors toppled off of shelves and shattered about them. One bounced off of Raine's shoe before soaring through the air and smashing on the wall, its contents setting Cyndi's cinder-black hair on fire as Fern attempted to put out the flames with her dress! Some attempted to make sense of Candi's Riddlish as Tai had gone to help with the spreading fire.

As they did so, Raine was clinging to life on a crippled spider. Talia tried to cut off another leg, but screamed and turned white as a ghost when the spider used one of its hairy legs to keep pinning her against the wall and sliding her to and fro against it. The spider wrapped another arm around Talia as he bucked Raine off of his head. He swung Talia around like a hammer, before swinging her towards the red button.

Raine shrieked in denial, as she stared into a pair of the spider's TV-sized eyes. A roar suddenly shook the classroom, causing more potions to fall. Raine teetered and almost fell into the goo herself as the classroom shook. What she did not see was that a brown beast had now appeared from the goo, set down an unconscious Melody, and leapt right at one of the spider's gigantic eyes. The spider reared up and let Talia go as it clicked its pincers rapidly and blinked from the tears falling from its hurt eye. In the midst of its pain, its legs floundered everywhere and almost killed Raine as it toppled blindly over the teacher's desk and sploshed right into the green goo with a devastating finish. ' _Glob glob, pop!_ ' went the goo as the spider sunk into it.

Raine coughed from the soot in the air. Tai was pouring a vial of blue, refillable chemicals onto the remaining flames as Marie laughed at Cyndi's mishap and ruin of hair, saying, "Never been more hot-headed, eh?"

There were light chuckles, before Eve mumbled, "I miss summer."

Fern fretted, "I miss spring."

Talia stated as she shivered in the corner, "I miss home." This wrenched everyone's hearts at that mention.

No one congratulated them for their triumph over the spider. As Talia shivered in the corner with the memory of the spider still, Raine hopped onto the spider's back and crossed back to her table. She stared down at the ground as the spider shrank to the size of her thumbnail now. She looked for Devin's warming eyes and light, chocolate-brown hair, but all she could find was Melody awaking on the table. She finally looked up, and found a creepy, maniac mask so close to her face that she screamed, and Devin, who was now a hairy beast that was a foot taller than his usual height, threw his arms in front of Raine to defend her. Raine threw her arms around Devin and gasped with fear. Seeing a threat being posed in front of Raine by this new maniac, Devin shielded her away from harm in his beast form as the others winced and thought, "Did she even notice that Devin had been transformed into a grotesque monster?!"


	17. Seeing Without One

**Thank you to readers once more and especially to ThinMintE06 this time! I'm glad to see that all of your dedication has risen this time and kept me going. Thank you for your patience; I haven't been slacking off, but made over five revisions in order to try to make this not confusing and as exciting and intriguing as possible. Warm regards to all of you and enjoy what I have for you this time!**

The guy in the maniac mask was downright creepy. As Melody sputtered on the desk and was regaining consciousness, the creep raised an eyebrow beneath his terrifying mask in disbelief. In a muffled tone, he criticized Raine "You take down a giant, poisonous spider and then you scream at a mask?" Then, he turned to Devin in his beastly form, who had scowled at that and laughed, "What? You upset because you can't see the future without your glasses anymore? Can't see my fighting moves that I will throw at you, eh? Actually, you probably can't even see that far into the future because you're so blind!"

Devin frowned as his voice quaked with suppressed anger, "Well first off, she saw the spider coming, but not you. Besides, no one usually goes around wearing that creepy thing of yours."

"Listen," hissed the fiend, "She walked right up to me first and I'd be calling you scary, you, childish beast. You should be in bed now."

"And you should be in college!" Devin retorted to the older teen, his rage bursting for a second. Devin caught himself, realizing what his stupid, witted mouth had just said while a ton of others roared in laughter. He was sure that this creep's expression was priceless behind that mask. Devin bit his tongue reminded himself not to become too feisty, or he could get into grave trouble. He shuddered and shook his head at a deadly memory of what his "smart-mouth" gotten himself into. He covered his eyes in contempt with his hand, which was now a paw after his transformation when he saw that his fangs that represented violence.

Talia waved the two's sinister dispute away as she was still crouched up in a corner. She told them, "Cut it out, okay? We're not here to fight. We should all be home and back on Earth right now. Sigh, we do have more important things to do, don't we, 'Nightmare'?"

As the class was reminded of their sorrow about losing their homes, Candi asked, "Wait, cough, cough, you know this guy, Warrior? The one who has not shed red ribbons?" Her Riddlish was apparently wearing off as only half of what she was saying was not in riddles.

"Red ribbons?" questioned 'Nightmare,' the guy in the frightening mask.

Tai cleared it up, "She means blood by that."

Everyone then stared at Talia gravely. She would dare to know such a spooky recluse?

The guy in the mask, called 'Nightmare,' cleared his throat in an attempt to redirect them away from Talia, and decided to turn their negative attention towards him. He bellowed, "Alright, this isn't the point, but now, I'd like you all to meet someone." he gestured with a wave of his arm towards the doorway and a woman walked into view.

Raine was relieved to see that it wasn't someone who seemed malicious, but she did have a rather chilling aura. When she opened her eyes, her blue eyes were so piercing that it seemed to read all of them like a book. The woman, completely dressed in blue, was at least in her 30's. Her crystal-blue hair sparkled with gems as her gown consisted of three layers of white ruffles, covered with a silk cloth that was swept aside to reveal some of the ruffles on the dress. Raine eyed the dangling gems on this woman's dress. The jewels were shaped like teardrops, or raindrops as they dangled from her dress.

"This..." 'Nightmare' introduced to all those unfamiliar to her, "...is Sierra.

Sierra stared at them her blue eyes emitting a piercing emotion like icicles and the winter's chill. Everyone's stares did not faze Sierra who held herself in a regal position. Then, some pairs of eyes shifted to an unfamiliar girl who wandered through the halls behind Sierra. Sierra did not need to look behind her to know who exactly who it was. She jerked a thumb behind and stated, "That's Sunset. She's excused from most classes due to severe, health issues."

Sunset, the new girl, had watermelon-pink hair with a yellow streak that ran through the left side of it. She had let go of her hold on the railing of the staircase before heading towards a locker and pressing against its lock with her eyes shut. She had on a white blouse with a pastel orangish-pink jumpskirt. She mumbled inaudible words as she did so, before waving at Sierra and unlocking the locker with her eyes still shut.

Candi suddenly shouted, "Fun!" This made Tai smile as he kicked the what was once a gigantic spider, but was now a teensy-little spider, into a jar and capped it. This made Talia shudder in the corner as the spider skittered weakly at the bottom of the jar.

Strangely, this made Sierra produce a cold smile. Suddenly, her eyes flashed as her blue irises turned mostly light blue, before returning back to its original state of blue mixes. She felt her soul whisk away from her own body head towards a girl with lemonade-pink hair and the black-haired boy next to her. This vivid girl had her pink hair tied into two, short pigtails on top of her head by elastics with candy-like ornaments as she swayed in a huge gown. The guy next to her had pure black hair and was smiling at her joyful face. Sorry to end their blossoming happiness there, Sierra used her soul, invisible to them, and touched the two's foreheads. Their giggles instantly stopped as they were going to be forced to share memories.

Sierra dived into their minds and saw screens of Candi and Tai's memories rush past as their bodies were left motionless. They were not welcome to join what Sierra would be seeing, but they would have a sense in what she had chosen to watch. Sierra let out a rare giggle as she did what was best for them, while having a little fun of her own. She wasn't doing this out of an evilly intended purpose. She actually held a mystifying power within her, which she used used to help others find what they were made for, whether they were willing to take it or not. Sierra knew that every time her soul left her own body to intrude people's minds, her own body would collapse suddenly as her eyes would flash like a camera, but she was fine with that. 'Nightmare' would catch her body from severe harm. Her spirit hovered and drifted as she finally found an important memory and could be critical to her mission, and she tapped it. The dark room with the scenes that had sped by, instantly began twisting and transformed into the scene where the memory had taken place. She learned the names of the people, who's minds she was intruding into; this boy's name was Tai, as the girl's name was Candi.

The scene took place at a an amusement park. The place didn't hold the sensation of excitement though. Instead, the place rumbled with chaos as people rushed to the exits. Clearly, an evacuation was happening. The only people who weren't dashing to the exits were Tai and his brother, Devin, as they pointed up at a damaged roller coaster. A section of it had crumbled off as flames danced on where the wreckage had landed on. Fire trucks blared as the lights from police cars spun about. Employees were escorting people out of the park as family members frantically carried their children out of the gates. Up at the deck of the roller coaster, an employee ushered the line out. Swiftly, the line began to disperse, but suddenly, someone busted through the crowd and swiftly jumped into the roller coaster's cart and took off at full speed when her foot hit the lever. Sierra gaped impressively as it was Candi!

The employee cried, "NO!" as Candi sped off alone in the coaster, screaming— not with fear, but with joy! Sierra kept her emotionless expression as she watched the crisis occur. She wondered though, "If this had happened, then how did this girl survive today without a scratch upon her precious face?" That was when the answer to her question had begun.

Far below, Tai was pointing, panic-stricken, as he broke away from Devin's tug and began scrambling up the wooden frame of the roller coaster! Tai definitely wasn't going to let this girl go like that. Apparently, he had bumped into Candi before as he recklessly charged to attempt to save her. But was it reckless? Even though firemen were rushing to get him down as an ambulance broke through the gates and screeched into a stop, Sierra read Tai's mind as he wasn't going into this without a plan. As he climbed, he calculated about how much time he had to save Candi before the cart would tumble to its end. He pulled himself up and onto the rails before dashing on top of the remaining parts of railway and jumping into the cart where the cute girl was squealing with joy.

Tai shouted at the top of his lungs with terror, "Candi, we need to get off of here!"

She stopped throwing her arms out of the cart in excitement and turned around with an intrepid smile and asked, "Why?"

Tai gasped, "Look, if we don't get off of this thing, we're- we're going to… never have fun again." He couldn't break the complete, horrifying truth to her; the entire thing would pain them both too much to keep their minds focused.

Candi gasped grievously, "What?"

Tai looked in front of him as the coaster rushed closer and closer to the gap. The firemen were using their trucks' ladders, but they wouldn't rise in time to get them.

He looked at the girl's tragic, sparkling eyes and put on his bravest smile. He took a deep breath as he attempted to calm his livid heartbeat down and told Candi, " Listen, I've got a plan though, okay? In exactly twenty-five seconds, we're going to jump off this thing, okay?" He patted the rickety cart as his eyes swung about his surroundings, double-checking his calculations. They were going to jump off of this thing, and with enough wind, they would land on top of a booth that had a cloth stretched over it, creating a rectangular tent. He took another deep breath and clasped Candi's hands in his, shook them confidently, and said, "Are you ready?"

Candi nodded, her face paling slightly, and Tai began counting down, "In three… Two… One...now!" They leapt as far as they could as the roller coaster smashed into smithereens below them. The rescuers shrieked below, as they were practically leaping to their deaths. That's when Tai gasped and thought, "Oh no! We are leaping to our deaths! I forgot to calculate how gravity would affect us if we're this high in the air! I really, really hate to admit this, but we're going to miss our stop!"


	18. Mysteries of Histories

**Extra thanks to current readers and mainly ThinMintE06 this time! I enjoy how she took the time to drop a review! Without furtherado, enjoy what I have in store for you! (Oh, and I kind of forgot about Ani, so lets leave her napping in a corner. Aheh heh...)**

Tai bit his lip as hard till he could almost taste blood. He yelled at himself mentally, "Great job for taking your crush on a journey— towards death!" The couple were still falling from midair, while the blaring sirens from the vehicles down below screeched and filled the air with sounds of peril. Overwhelmed with fear, he squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could, preparing for impact as he could feel the intense heat of the fire nipping at his cheeks. Suddenly, he heard Candi shout above him, "Hold on!"

"Hold on? Onto what?" cried Tai, but he wrung his hands into the air anyway as he continued to keep his eyes shut. His hands instinctively grabbed Candi's ankles before Tai felt the sensation of the air stop racing past him.

They were no longer falling anymore; rather, they were sailing through the air!

Sierra's spirit slapped a hand to her gaping mouth as Candi was also playing a role in saving the day. Her dress had poofed up like a parachute and they were gliding away from the wreckage!

Tai gasped as he opened his eyes and no longer felt the heat of the fire as it threatened him. His head swiveled around and he laughed with relief as the flickering lights of the fire cursed at him for missing his brutal end. Candi was screaming merrily above him as she glided them to safety, "Weeeee!"

They did miss their stop on top of the rectangular tent, but they landed right in front of it and on their feet. The paramedics and Devin were rushing towards him, but none of that mattered in this moment currently for Tai. As Candi hopped in joy, Tai peered at the stall's items. He took a pair of hair ornaments that Candi still wore today in her hair. The hair ornaments were pink elastics bound to pink, peppermint-like decorations. He gave them to Candi and smiled, "As long as you wear these, I'll adore you forever."

Candi stopped jumping, gaped at the ornaments, then stared at Tai before throwing her arms around him and pulling their faces close together with an embrace.

Something cute and sweet was about to happen, before Sierra pulled out of their memory without Tai and Candi's mental minds needing to shove her out.

When Sierra awoke from her trance, she pointed to Candi, who seemed dazed as Tai glared at Sierra as he comforted Candi in his arms. She knew that they were extremely upset from her intruding on their memories, but Sierra didn't mind, for this had happened plenty before. Sierra opened her mouth and said to Candi, "Sweet and sour shall bring you power."

Before Candi could get angry, she already got distracted by that phrase and started pondering about it while Tai said, "Wait, but that doesn't make sense. Being nice and then rude to people doesn't make you an all-powerful being!"

Sierra just smirked as she had befuddled another group of people before Marie groaned, "Enough Riddlish already!"

'Nightmare,' who was next to Sierra, scowled, "It's not Riddlish. You see, Sierra here can make predictions."

Sierra corrected 'Nightmare,' "Not exactly," responded Sierra, "My predictions are not destinies. They are what's most likely to happen based on what I've seen. You may not understand some of these till it happens."

Eve questioned how this was possible as Sierra looked around the room with her icy-blue eyes while Fern squealed, "Cool!"

Sierra pulled her lips into a mischievous, lopsided grin, before escaping Tai's outburst at her intrusion by turning to a dark-haired girl whose hair was singed by a fire and flashing her eyes again. She invaded Cyndi's mind sooner than usual, she tapped a memory in the dark room where once again, memories zoomed past.

As soon as she tapped the memory, Cyndi's mind seemed to hesitate before relenting and letting the scene build itself from beneath Sierra's feet. The destruction was already happening, a large, two-story house was burning down. The heat was intolerable as it beat down on the firemen as they poured water down upon the massive flames as they covered the sky with their ugly, gray smoke. A car had just parked and out of the car came a girl with mint-green hair, who was absolutely abhorred by what was happening. Sierra read this girl's mind, and found that her name was Fern. Cyndi was being dragged out of the house while Eve ran to her side. Stains of ashes dotted Cyndi's face while she was covering her face in tears. Ani had made it out and was coughing into her arm. An officer was letting Fern know what happened before she pulled away and yelled anguishedly at Cyndi, "I don't need to know what happened. I told you not to use the stove, yet you did, didn't you?!"

"It was an accident!" sobbed Cyndi, tears streaming down her face as she trembled with terror, but Fern had clearly lost her mind.

Fern screeched, "This is why I don't share my things with people because you clumsy jerks always manage to break it, or burn it down this time!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" pleaded Cyndi, "I'll pay for the damages, I swear!"

Sierra frowned and drifted away from the memory as her senses told her that that was not what had happened. Fern had let her merciful side take over and paid for most of the damages, while the rest of the roomates chipped in. The result of this though, ended with Fern becoming much more reluctant to share than usual as they now lived in an apartment. Cyndi ended up blaming herself for a lot of things out of extreme guilt, but Eve managed to keep that down with her big mouth.

Sierra floated to Eve's mind and found that the only problem with big mouths was that it could cause a lot of trouble with rumors, and Eve especially didn't like destroying her own trust, but did once, getting her friends angry at school. Therefore, Eve had to get her facts right, even if it meant researching a ton before she tattled.

That was when Sierra chose to leave the three's minds alone and zoom to others minds, understanding how some of their choices, from physical to mental, built their character. She finally left the groups of friends minds alone, before returning to her own form.

Sierra awoke and had her hair swing, before turning to Cyndi, who began to shuffle awkwardly under her gaze. "Cyndi," she stated, "Where cinders and ashes fly, create a haze in others' minds. If you don't use your shining power, you'll never find the actual truth."

Leaving Cyndi stunned while Ani let out a snore as she peacefully napped, Sierra turned steadily to face Eve. "Eve," she spoke in a hushed tone, "You have a knack of telling people off for their wrongdoings, but what will you do when you find the unbelievable is illuminated to you as the moon does with all of its star-friends." Eve hesitated to ponder this question as she put her head a fist.

Sierra could sense that some were practically begging for her to reveal their predictions to while others hoped that she would not. Sierra had to admit it, even in her late 30's, it still was always fun to read their memories, but she never meant to intrude too much. Reading minds was like reading books about history to her, where something always interesting happened. She attempted to maintain silence with one wave of her hand as the pestering crowd grew, interested in if she really could make predictions. When the pleas died down, she spoke, "Some of you, will not receive your predictions for I believe that it is better that way to let you, yourself, discover it." Groans echoed throughout the room at that, but she continued, "Others though, will receive it as common." With that, she pointed at Fern and confused them again so that they may not figure it out until the special event that the prediction had pointed to emerged. She said grandly, "Fern…"

Fern looked shocked at how Sierra knew her name before permitting her to continue, "Your desires shall bring you to 'Emerald City' and from there, you shall find what Dorothy wanted most." Fern looked confused as Candi took it literally.

No longer speaking her Riddlish, Candi exclaimed, "Oh, so we are going to 'The Wizard of Oz'!"

Tai smiled and seemed to forgive Sierra a bit as she had made Candi smile. That wasn't important to Sierra though, but what was important was that this gave Sierra time to turn to her last patrons.

Sierra declared before she targeted one of her last patrons, "While I have said before that some of your predictions may be puzzling, others shall be simple and direct, as I will demonstrate." Sierra gestured to a couple and Raine gasped when she was pointing to Devin, who was still in his beastly form and watched as he trembled a bit uneasily. Sierra didn't need to read this guy's mind at all; she just used her senses and reviewed how he had recently acted before declaring, "You see yourself as hideous, but let me tell you that that is not what others may see in this room."

Devin shouted woefully, "Are you kidding me? Who wouldn't be afraid of me? I've never been as good as any…"

Raine interrupted him right there and shook him by the shoulders. She didn't care whether he was a furry beast with fangs or not. She didn't care that he now towered over her at an astounding one foot and a half over his normal height. "Devin, don't say that," Raine cried heartbrokenly, "It'll do no one any good at all. Besides, I don't care about how you look; your heart is already worthy enough. Give yourself a chance and don't ever compare yourself. We're all here for you when you need it. Don't steal your happiness by comparing yourself. Also, just believe and you're halfway there already. You are an amazing person after all, Devin. For instance, you did already go out of your way to save my cousin for me no matter what it took. And beforehand, you were also so distressed when you thought that your brother was dead."

Tai was astounded for a moment for he had never thought about how Devin would feel if he was gone. He, himself, was a jerk once in a while to Devin back at home and always fooled around with him, but his brother still cared about him? Tai, without delay, agreed with Raine and permitted her to know this, "And Devin wouldn't leave you behind back at Zombie High School either when you went unconscious."

Raine looked up at Devin in astonishment and brightened, "You did that for me? You never cease to amaze me."

Devin pulled his mouth into a toothy grin as he motioned Raine's face up to meet his eyes. His glasses had broken and were lost down in the green slime forever, and without them, everything was blurry, but Raine's bright face was quite clear to him. Always beautiful because she could see through appearances.

After a long while, the class began to shuffle their feet awkwardly in the silence, before Raine had finally turned away from Devin's grateful gaze at last. Her head was still swimming at the thought of his warm gaze before she gasped and saw that Sierra was waiting very patiently for her to finish. Sierra was staring for too long to just be studying her; she was waiting for her to be ready. Raine asked sheepishly, "Yes? What do you want from me...ma'am?"

Sierra stared at the girl with softer blue eyes and mud-brown hair and without another moment of hesitation, Sierra blinked. Her eyes flashed again as she intruded this girl's mind and as usual, she saw memories fly past, but unexpectedly...


	19. Excused

_Bam!_ Sierra's whole spirit had ran into what felt like a solid blockade. She immediately returned to her body and awoke in shock, her whole body shuddering with pain. Sierra stared at this certain girl's vibrant, blue eyes while the girl stared back, confused. Regaining her balance, Sierra hissed under her breath that she should've just used her senses, instead of using her whole soul on this girl, Raine. Sierra had used her minor senses on Devin and a few others with minor cases, but the rest had more complicated ones, so she just used her soul them instead to retrieve greater memories.

Peculiarly, half of Raine's memories had been sealed off, which seldomly happened in other people. Sierra regained her balance and dusted herself off, before making-up an omen to get to the head of this fragile girl. Sierra knew that it wouldn't take long before this 'mental wall' would fall.

As the pain numbed, Sierra resolved that perhaps she wouldn't tell the rest of her partners later, but she knew that she did not hide her shocked expression in time when she had awoke. Sierra did know though the reason why 'mental walls' were created. Something immensely tragic had happened in the midst of Raine's life, and she had attempted to cut that those memories off from everyone, including herself.

Sierra finally spoke to the class as she clenched her aching arm and hissed from pain, "Raine, _hss_ , before the rainstorm comes, _hss_ , you shall have the truth rain out."

There were so many hissing sounds from Sierra's pain and 'rain' sounds in that sentence that the class got stumped.

Raine's expression had turned from impassive to questioning. Raine began to question herself mentally while Devin's beastly eyes stared down upon her with concern. She asked herself, "What truth? I really don't have much to hide now do I? Let's see… I have failed driver's test (and traumatized the examiner, but I didn't get to practice), got stunned when I got lower scores on quizzes than what I expected, and then I am also really bad at drawing landscapes."

The bell had finally rung, dismissing the class and disrupting thoughts. Cyndi yelled as she rain out the door, "Hooray! Finally, we can get out of here." The class began to file out of the door, but suddenly, a voice rang through the place, "Stop!" The demand was so sudden while the voice so eerie that Raine thought for a second that the voice might've belonged to a reformed, chemistry professor. It wasn't though, but it still was someone creepy who told them to stop; it was 'Nightmare'.

Sierra swung around irritably, "What do you want? Oh… my bad. I lost my temper for a second, but these kids need to get to class."

'Nightmare' had his smirk hidden under his shadowed mask as he replied, "Hey, you're not the principal here, remember? I did the dirty work, and I get some credit, okay? Now, I'm sorry to intrude your time, but why didn't you tell us Talia's prediction?"

Sierra answered immediately, "She already knows hers whether I tell her or not. I've been with her for years and I already know what it is for her."

Talia's medium-red eyes grew wide in the corner as whimpered at the trauma from the large spider. How could 'Nightmare' do this to her? She thought that he was a good friend who would understand what she wanted! She didn't know whether she wanted to be angry at 'Nightmare' that instant, or heartbroken. That's when Sierra did what she hoped would not be done; Sierra said it:

"You care," and with a swish of her gown, Sierra strutted out.

Her statement was so short that everyone else but three of them thought that it was a question rather than a statement such as, 'You care?' or 'Do you care if I tell you?' The class shuffled out awkwardly afterward, while Joy skipped happily, her dark hair bobbing up and down as she went.

Marie, after thinking so much about the predictions, had gotten grumpy and told Joy, "Geez, you don't need to be riding on a pony to have your hair bobbing like that with all that skipping."

Joy thought that Marie's snide remark was a compliment instead, and she decided to joyously lead the teens to their next class. Marie lingered behind and waited for Talia to come, but after Talia shoved her humorous jokes away, Marie decided that Talia wanted alone time, so she left her alone. As soon as Marie had left the room, Talia scampered past 'Nightmare' and bounded out the door while Ani had awaken from her nap, shocked to find the place empty.

Talia grumbled as she was infuriated; she began to detest this place after all the nightmarish things that'd she'd been through here. She shook her head at the thought of the word, 'nightmarish,' for it reminded her of someone.

Then, she whispered to herself, "Be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it." She had always hankered for a better appearance. When she finally got here, she got what she fantasized about. After what Raine had told Devin about though, she knew that they were right all along: Beauty is only skin-deep. It was just the inside that truly mattered.

Sierra had gotten it correct about how she really did care for all those teenagers like a parent. Sure, she might have to put a stop to the teens' fun once in a while, but it was for their own good. If they died then there wouldn't be any more left. She believed that they all thought that she was tuff-stuff, knuckle-headed and unforgiving. On the inside though, she was starving for a bit of affection, but only did what only 'Nightmare' and she would do. They would have to act tough only to lead people through the hurdles, before they would scatter like seeds!

Talia ducked her head in uneasiness as she ambled around a large, sakura tree that was planted indoors. Her face, sprinkled by the shadows, felt its soothing coolness, while she gloomily listened to the her friends' laughter. She knew, or she thought that the only person who knew her long enough to break through her melancholy was…

"Hey," said a voice gently.

Talia knew that voice long enough, and was not startled by it any longer. It was 'Nightmare,' her childhood friend. She took a few steps away from him and mumbled, "Okay, okay, I'm getting to class."

Before Talia could escape from him, 'Nightmare' grabbed Talia's wrist, before responding, "You know that I'm not stupid enough to leave you alone now, right?"

Talia immediately whirled around, infuriated at 'Nightmare' for even trying to stop her, and yelled, "Okay, maybe you're not stupid enough, but perhaps you're stubborn enough to keep chasing after me! Why do you want with me after how inconsiderate you were?!"

'Nightmare' responded uncomfortably, but honestly, "Look, I want the best for you, and that means that I have to do whatever it takes. I believed that the best for you included the truth, so I made sure that everyone knew the truth about you. Besides, I can excuse you from class."

Talia frowned, "Oh, so now that you're the king of the school, than do I have to overthrow you to let myself go to class? Do I have to curtsy and trip over my skirt to the King of Stupidity?"

'Nightmare' chuckled, "No, because I'd make you my queen."

Talia's cheeks instantly flushed red as her eyelashes fluttered under the light of the sakura tree as its petals drifted down serenely. She gasped as her complexion softened, "Really? You'd do that for me? Maybe you aren't that inconsiderate."

"Of course, I'm not," smiled 'Nightmare,' who considered to take off his mask for a moment, "I am unlike that grumpy, old headmaster that I overthrew."

"You did what?!" cried Talia, suddenly shocked.

"Oh. Er, ya, it was like one of those spy movies where they sneak around in air vents, break open windows, chuck around stuff, before finding the papers that they need and then calling their place as the new headmaster, heh heh."

Talia gasped, "You bad boy!"

'Nightmare' admitted, "Okay, cut the 'broken glass and the sneaking in air vents' part. All I really did was knock on the doors, but apparently, the doors were so old that they just broke off their hinges, so I technically broke in. Then, I just convinced the guy to retire. So he did, and then I excused him from the room, and that's all!"

Talia snorted with laughter before the warning bell had rung.

"C'mon," said 'Nightmare,' grabbing hold of Talia's hand, "Let's go and spectate the class on the balconies!" With that, he ushered Talia up the marble steps of the magnificent school while the breeze rustled at the sakura tree at the two's departure.

Meanwhile, Raine was finished sitting by her silent cousin as they were in the nurse's office. It felt kind of awkward in there, because only the patient's eyes moved while she was stuck in bed. Raine had the boys bring her cousin to there as soon as she found out where the nurse's office was. All that her paralyzed cousin could do though, was stare at Raine with vicious, unforgiving eyes.

Raine bowed her head as she whispered, "I'm sorry, Melody," she said, "But there's little I can do for you." Just then, Joy came into the room, while having her multiple, dark braids bounce around behind her.

Joy, in her nurse uniform, reassured Raine, "Don't worry, I promise that I'll take good care of your cousin."

Raine returned a small smile, and put her trust into Joy before she got up and briskly, walking out of the from the chilling room.

While Raine was striding down the hall, she lost track of where the others were. Devin had queried whether he should stay with her, but Raine had asked to be left alone for a moment. Devin was still reluctant before Tai had teased him about something that Raine did not here, before Devin chased after him.

Now the late bell had rung, and Raine squeaked in terror at the thought of a punishment for being late to class. She didn't mind that she was lost though, because she knew that she could always find her way back.

Raine silenced her breath for a moment and listened intently for the sounds of voices, but none could be heard. She grumbled as she began to stroke her brown ponytail with worry, knowing that she was clueless of where to go next. She glanced back behind her, hoping that someone had been waiting for her, but no one could be behind her but Melody. All of them had apparently scampered off with glee the moment that they were released from a horrendous classroom. It was a major surprise how none of them had gotten severely poisoned by the fumes in that icky lab room yet. It absolutely reeked in there apparently, but Raine didn't smell as much as the others did, because she was a mouth-breather, instead of a nose-breather. She had learnt to be one after she lived in what seemed like eternal filth.

Suddenly, Raine heard shuffling noises break the silence. In the hallway to the right of that curved around the nurse's office, Raine saw where the noise had come from. It was the girl who Sierra had introduced earlier.

Sunset, the girl who was excused from most classes, attempted to stuff a book in her backpack, but missed putting it in.

Feeling compassion, Raine approached the girl with a friendly smile, and the girl named Sunset, froze in her kneeling position. She saw Sunset trembled a bit in her place meekly as she heard someone unfamiliar approach her. Raine held out a hand bravely to help Sunset get up before she greeted her.

When Sunset had finally calmed down, she accepted the boost up before slamming her locker shut. This gave Raine some time to introduce herself, "Hey there, you must be Sunset. Sierra told me all about you. Plus, I also adore the color of your hair!"

"Thanks," smiled Sunset sheepishly, before she swung her tied-back hair behind her and grinned, "And I'm guessing that you must be Raine."

Raine yelped, "Oh, well, so everyone knows my name already? Word around here must spread quickly, right?"

"Oh, I'm sorry to be so sudden," apologized Sunset, scratching her hot-pink hair nervously as her other hand tugged at her single, yellow strand that was caught on her backpack, "I-I can just hear things really clearly."

Raine smiled, "Well, good for you!" To her surprise, Sunset did not react the way that she expected.

Sunset was frowning instead, "Ya, but it can be annoying too. My hearing has enhanced to make up for one of my senses. Imagine the world practically sound like its rumbling so much, that its seems like it might collapse on you. Every footstep I hear sounds like a stomp, every soft rain shower sounds like a roaring waterfall, and every piece of paper falling can sound like the wind. And Raine," she concluded, "I know that you're a cripple."

Raine's expression immediately turned to shock again as she thought, "Whatever they're doing, kids at this school definitely know how to creep people out! Maybe they're just not good at introducing each others. They can afford expensive classes here, but not the cheap ones?! Weird! They sure do need a socializing class." Raine broke out of her thoughts before she plastered on a weak smile from her terror, and squeaked, "But how do you know that? I can walk and run now with my two legs. Have we met before?"

Ignoring one of the questions, Sunset responded easily to the first question, "I know because you put down one leg harder than the other, almost as if you're limping. I can tell that your case isn't a limp though because I can practically hear your muscles crackling as if they haven't been used in a long time."

Raine's mouth dropped in awe, "Wow, that's amazing."

"Everything can come with a sacrifice though," smiled Sunset sadly as she had said her warning.

"How?" questioned an intrigued Raine.

Sunset hesitated before responding, "Do you really want to know? Some people get get weirded out by this."

Raine thought for a moment as her eyes whirled around the room, trying not to make contact or else they could catch some more of her untold tales. Her eyes went down to the floor, and she saw the book that Sunset had accidentally left on the floor. Carefully, Raine bent down and picked up the book. Surprisingly, it wasn't just any normal book. This book was a lot heavier and instead of paper pages, this one had stone tablets enclosed within it with stone carvings on each tablet. Raine thought that it was interesting as she handed the book back to Sunset. Then, she determined her answer to Sunset's question, "Well, if you don't want me to know and it makes you more comfortable that way, then you don't have to tell me. Neither, will I force you to."

Sunset took a deep breath before she finally put on a brilliant smile and saying, "I trust you." With that, she pinched one eye closed with one of her fingers, while opening the other eye slowly.

What Raine saw next, shocked her as it all made sense to her. The pieces of Sunset's curious mystery finally fit together, from an unusual lock on her locker that only required a thumbprint to unlock, all the way to why she had such an unusual, heavy book.

Raine gasped, "Why, you're blind!"

Instead of the vibrant colors that Raine expected to see, all that she saw within Sunset's eye was a dull, storm-blue iris that almost faded into the whites of this girl's eyes, while the what was supposed to be the dark center in her eye had practically faded into her iris.

Sunset smiled sadly as she closed that eyelid and confirmed it, "Yes, I am. To never see a sunset, and not see what beautiful objects cause such wondrous smells and rhythms as they whisk past me is heartbreaking."

An awkward silence occurred while they both digested this tragedy. The silence had finally broken when Raine bowed her head and whispered, "I'm sorry. If you ever need anything though, like earplugs, for those annoying noises, than just let me know, 'kay?"

Sunset grinned gratefully and responded, "Thanks, but I'll be fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a conversation to listen to."

Raine inhaled with shock as she shook her head at Sunset's misdeed. She was using her oddity to her advantage by eavesdropping on other people? That wasn't right, but if it was for catching other wrongdoers, than it couldn't be that bad right? After all, it was like shooting a school-shooter. Both sides were wrong in their own ways, but it was for the greater good sometimes. With that, Raine walked off without another question. It didn't take her long to find the others, because their bickering voices were now so loud that she thought that they were going to awake Mother Nature and bring spring early!

Meanwhile, Sunset crept upon a group of emotional friends. It didn't matter if she was hiding by one of the elaborate staircases or out in the open, these girls were so immersed in their pleas that they did not notice her. Apparently, the girls involved in this were Ani, Eve, Fern, and Cyndi.

Eve was begging as she shed desperate tears, "Please, Cyndi, just let us go home now! I'm sick of this place already. It's not fun."

Ani chipped in happily as she did not notice the others' terror, "Ya, it's not fun; it's killer fun!"

"As in literally!" barked Fern angrily at Ani, "This place was fun, but now it's might as well rain knives with so much havoc!"

"Please, you guys," begged Cyndi, "I can't do anything about this."

All of her friends shouted, "What do you mean?!"

Eve chipped in, "Ya, there's no way that you can't do it again, right? I was standing on the balcony back at Zombie High School, when I heard that Raine wanted dry clothes, and then you made them appear out of this swirly thingy."

Ani squawked, "Swirly thingy as in a portal!"

Fern nodded, "Ya. Then the moment that we were knocked out of our undead daze, the portal had appeared! It has to fit now doesn't it?"

Eve nodded, "Ya, you were there with every event that erm… portal appeared!"

Cyndi cried weakly as she felt cornered by the stairwell from her friends, "Ya, but… wasn't almost everyone else there too? It can't be me. I don't feel anything special run through me."

Fern asked crucially, "Then how do those things appear every time you're around?"

Cyndi trembled as she was being accused by her own friends, "I- I don't know, but it can't be me."

Eve then pointed out, "Then how else? Everything leads to you at this point."

With a few sentences, Cyndi had shut them down, "Look, you guys, I want to get out of here as badly as you do! You see this mess of my hair?! If I could, I would make it grow back, but I can't. Neither can I just wondrously teleport myself to some barber shop to fix-up this burnt mess of hair!" She ended their accusations right there, before she shed a few tears.

Her friends glanced at the charred wreck of hair, before they shamefully realized how badly they had treated Cyndi during their desperate moment. Silently, they hugged their miserable friend and apologized for how heartless they became at the thought of home.

While they did this, Sunset emerged out of her hiding place and strode off, knowing that this had proved something great to her: This excused Cyndi from their suspect list; she was not the one.

* * *

Greetings again, fellow readers! I decided not to put the quick note at the top of the story this time because of the intense cliffhanger on the last chapter, but here is the note at the end now! Sorry that this took a while to update, but ensuring good quality into this once again, ya know! I also forgot how Joy really was supposed to look, so my bad. I'm going tweak everyone's imagination now, including mine. Joy is actually supposed to have darker skin with brown braids along with beads on them. She still has sunflowers in her hair, and her keeps the same clothing; it's just her physical appearance that has changed so my bad that I had forgotten.


	20. No Contact

Thank you so much to my new fans! Special thanks to KitTheKid for such wondrous praise, and also to BunnyBeat for helping my enthusiasm continue to rise! Also, to MexicoPays4Walls, thank you for using your voice within your username, and returning my courage to pull through such a long chapter!

Raine trudged into the fields outside where the class stood. With her hands on her hips, she called, "Okay, guys, I'm here to confiscate your megaphones that're making you so loud!" The guys immediately stopped their irritable bickering; they froze for a second, before they turned to Raine, a confused expression plastered on their faces.

Tai scratched his dark hair and said, "Erm.. what microphones?"

"No, I said megaphones," replied Raine, "Either way, you guys were so noisy that you might as well start a band, host a rock concert, and put that deafening argument into your lyrics!"

Devin snorted in laughter as he thought how hysterical it would be, if they had put their argument into a song. Tai just shook his head in disbelief as he realized how ridiculous they really were.

Just then, the bell had clanged again. Its rhythmic chimes rang through the air as Devin clapped his beastly paws together. He praised with relief, "Well, Raine, you're just on-time."

"On-time?" questioned Raine, "Isn't class over now?"

"No, that bell just signalled the end of our break, so come and join us. Tai and I have been picked as team captains by the coach. Sorry if we were loud, but we were just disputing for people in our teams for horseback racing."

"What's horseback racing?" asked Raine, stumped.

Tai threw his hands on his head in shock as he shouted, "You don't know what that is?!"

Looking at Raine's hurt expression, Devin sighed and decided to put his best plan to action for this situation, "Fine, I'll show you Raine, or else you'll be the last one picked, since you have no experience."

The next thing that Raine knew, she was laughing while she had her arms thrown around Devin. Tai was doing the same thing for a playful Candi— they were piggyback riding on the boys.

Devin was huffing and puffing as he ran around the grassy field, "Ya, so that's what you do with the... huff... horses. Except, huff... they have minds of their own and may not... huff... understand you."

Raine just laughed as she tried to remember when was the last time that she had a piggyback ride, but couldn't recall it. She still did enjoy it though, as she felt the delightful wind whoosh through her hair. She heard Candi's laughter ring through the air as Tai was instructing her, "Okay, Candi, put your arms around my neck and keep holding on. No, don't let go! Ouch, no, don't hold onto my ears! Ow, ow, ow!"

Suddenly, Raine heard a quiet thump. Devin had tripped over a rock, and the next thing Raine knew, they were both sprawling on the ground. Both of them rolled into a tall meadow as they were roaring with laughter at their mishap. They lay side by side, Raine in her pretty top and skirt as her pretty eyes sparkled, while Devin was still a large beast, but dressed handsomely both on the inside, and outside. They stared into each others' eyes before Raine turned her head shyly away as she a light blush appeared on her cheeks. As she slowly closed her eyes, she plucked some of the plants next to her, but to her surprise, it didn't feel like grass. She turned back to Devin as she opened her eyes and held up the bowed plant in the sun; it was her favorite flower, lavender.

Seeing her eyes getting mystified by this plant, Devin asked, "Is this your favorite flower?"

"Ya," whispered Raine, her eyes still on the plant as she lowered it, "I haven't seen one since my original school trimmed their lawn."

"Speaking of school…" yelped Devin as he jumped up to his feet. He saw the teacher of this class coming up the hills as she led a pair of horses behind her. The horses threw their front legs up and neighed, causing Candi and Tai to stop in their tracks. The lady leading the horses leg go of the horses' reins and petted their manes before she blew her whistle, signalling for all activity to cease.

Class was to begin now, but not everyone was present. The coach cleared her throat before she said, "Today, we shall be having an extraordinary session, thanks to the previous students of yesterday's class! Today's session will be what I call a treat. Afterward, it shall be back to the usual, racing course!"

A few of the students groaned, for they preferred the racing course, while others cheered and gasped at the graceful horses. The teacher took the reins of the white horse in silver decor, and began to demonstrate how to get on top of the horses, and then how to direct them.

What they did not know was that they were all being watched...

Sierra was at the crystal-paned window, staring out of the dark room as she watched the bright sunlight dawn itself upon the laughing students. She could hear the thumping of the footsteps above her; they belonged to 'Nightmare' and Talia, who were spectating on the balcony. Sierra's eyes narrowed as she backed away from the window and sat down on an oak chair with a desk in front of her. In the private study room, Sierra began to review what had happened as she gritted her teeth at the noise all around her. 'Nightmare' and Talia were dueling each others with melee weapons. Sierra had seen them both duel before, and they were pretty good. Melee weapons often fell to rapid firing though. Outside, Sierra could hear the shouting.

Marie shouted aghast, "Horses?! Could this day get any worse?"

Fern replied, "I thought it was going swell for you, Marie."

Marie responded irritably as she rubbed her bruise from where Blaze, the pegasus, had kicked her, "Ya, swell, as in a bad way." She was surely not fine with the large, purple bruise on her chin, but she chose not to go to the nurse's office, considering that the nurse was Joy, and it was partly Joy's fault that she got hurt anyway. Sierra glared at the group and picked out a few who she held suspicions on. These kids were definitely abnormal, but then again, what was normal? With a flick of her long, dragging gown, Sierra strode away to search for Sunset as she watched the plump, little coach hover in the air gracefully while her blonde hair rippled behind her.

The coach snapped at Marie's group to shush, before she finished demonstrating as the class squealed with terror, at the sight of the horse rearing to a stop, "Continuing with your physical education, today's class shall be teaching you about the art of solitary grace! You shall be split into teams and have a race on horseback. Your mission is to ride into the forest alone. No other contacts can be made with anything or anyone else once the race begins. As soon as you make it to the other side of the forest, and get off of the saddle, the horses shall find their way back by themselves for the next player. I ensure you that these magnificent creatures are highly well-trained. Now that I've made sure that all of you can handle the horses decently on your own, the first riders can take off to the forest at the sound of my whistle. Once they take off, all of you shall be bound to a spell that prevents you from being enticed to make contact with others. You will know that you have reached your destination once the horses have stopped. These steeds know the way, but it is your job to hustle them or slow them down. Got it?"

"Got it!" the class chanted back simultaneously.

The coach continued with her long lecture, "I will now hold you to an oath lasting the same time as the tournament does. You are not to make any other contact throughout this entire race. Remember, it is also about solitary grace." The class nodded, but they were unconvinced of the reason of why there should be no contact, as the teacher made a flourishing gesture with her hand.

Eve whispered, "Can she really do that?"

"Do what?" whispered Cyndi.

"Bind us to an oath," responded Eve.

The teacher overheard these two and snapped, "I'm a forest nymph, so of course I can. I'm not as scary as your Potions master back there, now am I? He is a vampire."

The teens released muffled screams of horror as they clapped a hand to their mouths. Suddenly, Potions seemed ten times more dangerous than they had thought. They had no idea of how much more dangerous it could've been back there.

The coach sighed at her class; she was disappointed with how oblivious they were, while she apparently, she did not seem to realize that they did not belong to this game permanently.

"Now," she continued as she turned to the two boys whom she chose for team captains, "I expect that you two have your teams chosen now?"

The guys didn't utter a word, but they bowed their heads to stare at the grass below them, while they guiltily shuffled their feet and scratched their heads.

The teacher scowled disapprovingly, before she exhaled, "Fine, I'm going to flip a coin then." As soon as she finished saying that, she held out her plump hand and out of nowhere, a silver coin was materialized, before it dropped into her hand. The teens held shocked expressions at this act of magic, while their coach, unaware of this, turned to the two brothers and said, "Ready? Call it!" She tossed the coin high into the air, and as the coin turned round and round in the still air, it glinted as Tai squinted to watch the coin.

Tai was actually calculating which side the coin would land on. He guessed the approximate weight of the coin, its maximum height in the air, the rate it was turning, adding the normal gravitational pull. Almost instantly, he barked, "Heads!"

"Tails, then," shrugged Devin uninterestedly.

When the coin was snatched out of the air with a swift swipe by their surprisingly agile teacher, she announced, "Heads it is!"

Tai whooped in triumph, "In your face, Dev!"

Devin just shrugged his oversized, fur-covered shoulders nonchalantly, before saying, "It's just a coin flip."

"Oh?" cackled Tai with an errant smile, as something urged him in his mind to mess around with his little brother again. "That coin flip," he cackled, "Determined that I can pick anyone first on my team, and you know what this means? Raine, come here."

Raine was rubbing her sore elbow, before she looked up, shocked to see thatTai was beckoning her to come to his team. Sorrowfully, she looked at Devin's stunned expression as she gave him a small smile, before she reluctantly went behind Tai, unable to argue, as she created the first bit of his line for his team.

Devin gritted his beast's fangs as he searched for vengeance, but Candi was nowhere to be found for him to play the same trick on Tai. Tai had done his mischief again and there was little to do about it. Devin's eyes searched around for who may be a decent player. Within a few seconds, he thought of someone who he knew that had a job, worked hard, and was also available; he called, "Fern."

Fern's face lit up with delight; she was finally not the last-picked, as she usually was in sports.

Next, Tai's eyes flicked over the leftover bunch and decided on Cyndi, since her dark clothing could help camouflage within the shadows, so that other players could not keep track of her.

Suddenly, a shrill squeal aroused them, "Hey, Marie! What's going on?"

Tai shouted, "No, Candi! Stay back!"

"Why?" questioned Candi as she was licking pink frosting off of her hands. She edged closer, close enough for Devin to pick her. Devin shouted, "Candi!" as he sneered at Tai's scowl.

"Tell me, what's going on?!" protested Candi as she edged to Devin's group absentmindedly, "Why did I have to stay back?"

"For the better," sighed Tai, as he had gotten a bitter taste of his own trick. Tai then picked Eve, another camouflaging player. He rubbed his own head in disappointment as he reminded himself that his girl was just going to be away temporarily. When he was finished with his own reaction, he and Devin found themselves swinging their heads back and forth at the last two girls; it was clear that the teams would be unequal in their numbers.

Eve, who was quick to notice as usual, questioned, "Where's Talia?"

Marie replied, "She must be in the nurse's office after she got traumatized by the spider. That's where we also sent Melody after she's been sayin' nothin' to us, but just lying down and staring at us with the accusin' eyes. Don' worry though, Joy will take care of them."

The coach heard what the girls were saying, but knew that half of what Marie had stated was not true. She answered boredly, "Talia's excused."

"Lucky," mumbled Marie as she was unenthusiastic about horses. That gave Devin the signal that Marie's unenthusiasm could affect his team.

"Ani," Devin called. From the pair of two, brightly colored girls, Ani squawked and burst away from the remaining group. That gave Marie to Tai's team.

The coach took out her whistle and called, "Alright, kids! Who's going first?" To her displeasure, all of her students inched back a bit, scared to go first. She sighed, and just decided to pick by herself, "Tai. Devin. Up front! You two are team leaders, so show them how it's done."

Tai and Devin looked at each others hesitantly. This was about to become another instance of sibling rivalry.

Tai then smirked, "Ready to eat my dust, Devin?"

"Sorry," laughed Devin, "But you'd be going so slow, that there'd be no dust for me to eat!"

The brothers guffawed with laughter, before Tai took the black horse with gold decor, and Devin took the white horse with the silver decor.

The coach called, "On your marks, get set... tweet!"

At the sound of the whistle, the brothers took off, head to head. Things got unpleasant though, when Tai began messing around and pretending to bump his horse into Devin's. They disappeared into the clearing before Blaze came down and landed besides the waiting class. Blaze laughed, "Hah! Horses… They need instructions to be given to carry on!"

Raine turned to him, "But doesn't a steed's loyalty never waver to its master?"

"Sure," coughed Blaze, "But I tend to defend strangers all the time in reality."

"Hmm, interesting," responded Raine, before she heard Blaze's stomach growl. She quipped, "Hey, and I'll tend to you later, 'kay? What do you eat anyway, Blaze? Since you're a dog in reality, I'd say that you shouldn't consume fruits nor sugars, or else you can get a possible ear infection. Hmm, how about a nice, juicy bone, later?"

Blaze's eyes sparkled as he hopped around and rolled over making the grass seem like it was on fire with his flame-like wings. He panted, "Finally, someone got that right on their first try!"

Up above, Talia was done wrestling 'Nightmare,' and he had won, but not by much. Scratches bore on her face as she rolled her eyes at Blaze, who was acting like a puppy again, "Oh, puh-leeze, he's acting like a puppy again. Sigh, sometimes, I wish that I was a kid again, but of courseI doubt that anyone would treat me right anyway."

'Nightmare' grimaced a bit at that comment and questioned, "What about me?"

"Okay, besides you, Prince Charming," laughed Talia as they watched the intimidated class stare at the returning horses. Both of the horses had returned at the same pace and were head on head, meaning that Tai and Devin must've tied… and probably had a fight over it.

Eve and Ani then got onto the horses. Ani got off to a quicker start, but tumbled off the horse, while Eve clung nervously to her horse's mane, rather than the reins. To their dismay, the coach had raged at those mistakes. Quicker than the two brothers, the two girls got onto the horses the right way, and dashed off before their teacher could catch them!

Candi and Raine sniggered with laughter at that, as they could see a terrified Ani lose feathers off her feathered dress.

Candi began licking frosting off of her hands again, so Raine questioned, "Hey, where'd you find that frosting?"

Candi smiled a sweet smile as she rubbed some frosting accidentally into her hair, "Oh, I found it in Candy Land!"

Blaze snorted, "She just means the cafeteria."

Raine laughed, "Oh, so are you queen of Candy Land, Candi? After all, it's named after you."

"Ooo, did Tai name it after me?! Oh, he's so sweet. Why can't I ever find anything nice to do for him?!"

Raine put her head down on a fist and thought for a moment, as she sat down with her legs criss-crossed, "Why don't you bake him a pie or something?"

Candi laughed, "Been there, done that… crashed and burned literally."

"Well," said Raine, "Maybe being there for him is enough, since you're such a sweet person."

"Aww, thanks," smiled Candi as she sadly took out a melted chocolate bar, "But still…"

Candi and Raine were beginning to get along quite well when the horses neighed and came back, their hooves thumping powerfully on the grass.

Marie shuddered at the sight of the horses, as Candi whimpered and just stared up at her black steed. Candi had clearly missed the demonstration back there, while she was smearing her face with sugary sweets' stains.

Raine attempted to help her, but at the sight of that, the coach stopped her immediately and criticized her. Raine fumed a bit and went back to her spot, but she began shouting directions for Candi. Marie was already far ahead, by the time that Candi figured it out. Fern actually began to appreciate the fact that her competitor was actually helping out her own teammate.

After a moment of boredom dragged by, the horses came back in a slightly, wretched state, as they were probably traumatized by how horribly the last girls had handled them. Fern jumped onto her black steed immediately as Raine just swung her leg up onto the saddle. With perfect pulls at the reins, both girls sped off as Cyndi, the last one left, lied back.

Within a minute, Raine found herself into a thriving, emerald-green forest. Stones speckled the ground, and she did her best to steer away from them till she found a grassy pathway. The trees were enormous here, as vines tied plants together.

Suddenly, Raine heard a snap, and saw a large branch fall behind her. Her opponent's horse reared and she saw that Fern had made it out. Fern glared at Raine, and both girls began speeding up their horses. They were no longer in a gallop, but speeding through greenery, sending leaves flying and mud splattering everywhere. Raine looked to see where Fern was, but suddenly both of them made eye contact. Contact. The moment that they did, the forest suddenly became darker, and wind suddenly began screaming. Raine thought that she heard a voice yell, as if it was carried by the wind, "Contact! What did I say?!"

Suddenly, a fire started out of nowhere in front of Fern! Fern's black steed threw her off, and dashed backwards.

Fern jumped back from the flames, that began to eat at the logs around her. Fern yelled to Raine, "Go!"

Raine turned her horse back sharply, "Have you gone insane? No, I'm not leaving without you!"

Raine tried to turn her horse around, but apparently her horse was too terrified and refused. Fern was running behind as trees came crashing down behind her. The rumbling and brushing of leaves became dreadful as the fire began to light up the green with bright bursts of orange color. Raine turned her head around and saw Fern, desperately trailing behind her and jumping over a log. Raine shouted desperately, "C'mon!" as she stretched her hand out to Fern.

Fern shook her head, "No, I'm not on your team! Why would you help me?"

"I don't care, just get on!" shrieked Raine at Fern's stupidity. With one lurch, she grabbed Fern's sleeve and hauled her up onto the horse. Raine huffed hotheadedly, "I'm never at my best, unless I'm helping someone." With that, she urged her horse to go faster, but all of a sudden, she saw what looked like visible wind!

"What did I say?! No contact!" shouted the ghastly looking swirl, before it unexpectedly managed to knock Raine off of the horse. Raine felt the impact hit her, and lost her breath, before she tumbled off of the horse, and let go of the reins.

Fern yelled with her eyes wide open, "Raine!"

"Go!" cried Raine, and with one slap at the horse, she had the steed keep going.

Fern refused to go, but she couldn't get her foot out of the tangled stirrup. She shrieked as she threw her mint-green hair back wildly, "Raine!"

Raine dragged herself up from the dirt as it speckled on her hair. Her hip hurt from where she felt the impact from as she was stunned by what she saw. She heard the roar of the fire consume more vegetation behind her as she looked around for some place that wasn't heated by a red glow. She felt the heat of the fire beat behind her as she began limping, then stumbling to a crawl. She was lost.

Meanwhile, Fern was practically screaming at the top of her lungs for Raine, before she got hit by a tree branch on her head. She cried out in pain, before she rubbed her neck and saw a black figure rush through some brambles. Fern cried, "No!" as she was sure what looked like the ghastly spirit of the wind or something had come back. She steered her horse to the right a bit more, before she saw…

"Cyndi!" Fern shouted in exult.

Cyndi looked up, and shivered at the realization that Fern had shouted her name. Cyndi had been sprinting by foot as soon as she saw the coach back there vanish. "What?" Cyndi's voice choked out as she felt the overwhelming guilt come back to her at the sight of a flame. She still remembered that she was the one to blame, when she had burnt Fern's property to the ground.

"Get on!" yelled Fern, as she steered her horse closer to Cyndi.

Cyndi looked down as she continued running, "No, I don't deserve it."

"Deserve what?" sniffed Fern pretentiously, "You didn't burn down any lives. Only property was destroyed. It's okay, I can buy another one."

Cyndi looked up from a few tears, as she practically shrieked in her mind, "No way that Fern is forgiving me!"

"Take my hand!" shouted Fern, "You can't play, 'Hero,' or ever fix this, if you don't make it out alive."

Cyndi stared at Fern for a second, before she quickened her pace, and allowed Fern to pull her up onto the horse, just as the flames singed the grass behind her. She held on tightly to Fern as she was alarmed by the speed that they were going on. Shortly, they heard voices.

Fern got her foot out of the untangled stirrup, before she lowered herself and snapped Cyndi out of her terror.

Devin ran up to them as Tai was frozen in place at the spectacle of the landscape turning into a hill of ash. Candi squeaked with fear as she had made it through alright, and clutched to Tai's shirt with fear. Tai threw one arm around Candi and ensured her safety, while Devin shouted in alarm, "Where's Raine?!"

Fern didn't realize that it would be this hard, but she still managed to choke the words out. "She- she's gone! She left this horse to me when I fell off! Devin, Raine's still in there!" Fern sobbed as she could smell the smoke now that turned the blue, cloudy sky to what felt like an ominous storm. It was hard for Fern to look up at Devin's speechless reaction, not because he had the face of an ugly beast, but because Fern felt that she had failed now. Whether her team won or not now, she did not care.

The group that had made it out so far, was desperately coming up with a plan that would not put anyone else in jeopardy. As they were doing so, Raine was dragging herself to a small, grassy patch that was centered in the midst of a large field of dirt. The trees around her were ablaze or about to be burnt to the ground as Raine gasped for air. Her sight was hazed by flying particles of ash, while cinders dropped from her hair. At the thought of the word, 'cinders,' Raine gasped and hoped that Cyndi had made it out alive. She dug for air in the fresh patch of grass, as she knew that the ash particles were currently flying upward, and that plants could give her a small bit of fresh air. Her hair was caked and matted with clutters of sticks as she had rambled through the forest at full speed. She had lost a polished shoe, and her arm had been cut by some thorns back there. Suddenly, she saw a firebolt streak at her from the hazy sky. Raine could feel the heat envelope her while she had no contact with anyone. Fern's horse had galloped away through the burning forest. They had been out of sight for a while. Raine raised her arm into the air and attempted to cry out loud for help, but her voice failed her as she coughed and choked on ash particles. Her arm fell out of the air and she was left there in a burning forest, motionless. With one more breath, Raine trembled, tossed her head around on the ground, and fainted.


	21. Soaring Heroes

Devin shouted for Raine desperately. He had tumultuously called her name for what seemed like dozens of times, as the flames flickered and the wind howled dreadfully. The intimidating crackle of the fire swallowed Devin's calls, as its reddish-orange flames danced on emerald trees and tore them. Birds scattered into the smoke-filled sky, as the splitting of a large branch could be heard within the forest. The sounds of sizzling leaves were almost deafening, as they brushed against each other during their fall from their trees. Particles of ash could now be _seen_ as they clumped together within the spewing streams of smoke.

Devin's mind sparked the idea of how he needed to take action. Somehow, over the roar of the flames, while it engulfed another tree whole, Devin's sharp hearing managed to pick up the neigh of the white horse nearby, while it munched on a few stalks of grass. Devin quickly approached the mare and leapt onto it, tugging its reins as the horse's knees shook with fear. To Devin's agony, he had a crowd of disagreement heading towards him. Devin urged the horse forward, but the mare only took a few steps, before it stopped and snorted disobediently.

Tai shouted, "Devin, no! Stop trying to play, 'Knight in Shining Armor,' when you're really going to play, 'Boy in Tin Foil,'... or… _ahem_ , 'Boy in Chewbacca's fur'."

Devin wrinkled his unfamiliar nose in annoyance. Okay, sure he was an oversized beast trying to ride on a horse, but what did Tai expect? Devin barked back impatiently, while he continued urging the stubborn horse to go, "Sure, but if I was the Tin Man (Candi squealed at the mention of a character from the _Wizard of Oz_ ), then I'd need a heart. And my heart belongs with Raine!" Devin suddenly bit his lip back, realizing what he had just said and blushed, unsure if they could see his cheeks turn pink beneath his fur. Afterward, he continued, "And if I don't do something, then Raine's going to get injured or face even worse possibilities! So don't try and hold me back, okay, Tai? What are you even trying to do anyway? _Scare_ me? Are you trying to be a 'Wolf in Nerd's clothing'?!"

Tai winced a bit at Devin's remark, but snapped, "Listen, I'm tryin' to protect you, lil' bro. If you get yourself hurt, you're going to hurt Raine even worse, and especially hurt me too. Why? Because I would never be able to forgive myself!"

Devin's next reply was staggered, as he was stunned by Tai's answer. While he attempted to summon his next few words, they were heedlessly interrupted by Candi, who came up to Devin's mare.

With her hands on her hips, Candi started wagging a finger and lecturing the white horse in its golden ornaments, "Now you listen up, Horse. Don't go running off with Devin like it's a wild goose chase into that burning forest, or else you might... um… burn your tongue, and then you… uh… wouldn't be able to taste any more of those…erm... yummy veggies that you're eating!"

The horse snorted in what sounded like agreement, or was at least happy to oblige as long as it didn't involve being in what looked like an oversized fireplace. Some spectators scratched their heads, as they weren't sure of whether the horse had really even understood anything that Candi had said.

For a moment, Fern just stood there, staring at Candi, who was stroking the horse's mane now. After a moment, Fern began sternly stomping up to Devin, ready to also disapprove or his recklessness, no matter how reluctant she was to agree with Tai about rescuing Raine in an alternate way. Before she could open her mouth to speak though, Fern suddenly heard screams over the sounds of the dying fire. Fern whipped around with fright, almost expecting to see the ghastly spirit that had knocked Raine off of their horse, then departing its pursuit. Not far in front of them, Cyndi and Ani were at the front of the forest, darting away from what looked like a fireball, that was curving and hurling towards them at full speed in midair!

Devin's white mare reared in fright and retreated a bit, while Candi ceased petting the horse's mane. She dashed into Tai's arms, before tugging him away from this mystical object. Devin covered his ears, as he expected to see and hear an atrocious collision happen, while he could feel the chill wind beat against him. His eyes stung, as he could feel the dirt particles clatter around his eyes.

Many of them had begun screaming, or diving for cover as they could all feel the blasts of wind beat harder and harder against them. The wind's gusts knocked some of them off their feet, while it also had Ani's dress pick her up and off the ground. Ani shrieked in terror as she was floating away, before she was fortunately snatched out of the air by Cyndi, who then pinned her onto the ground to keep the wind from carrying her away again. Devin's horse unexpectedly wheeled and threw him to the ground, before it galloped farther away, leaving him dazed on the grass. Devin shook himself out of his daze and aroused in shock to see the fireball's speed gradually slow.

The fireball was very near the ground now, but it somehow did not singe any blades of grass below it. Slowly, what looked like flames surrounding faded away. As it neared the ground, its buffeting of the wind finally stopped, and what they found was…

"Blaze!" some of the girls cheered, while Blaze, the flame-winged pegasus, had his hooves lightly touched the ground.

Blaze scoffed playfully, "What? Missed me?" And slung around Blaze's back was…

"Raine!" Devin shouted. He rushed up to Raine, as she had her feet dangled to one side of Blaze's back, while her head drooped over on the other side. Devin rushed up to Blaze, and carried Raine off of the pegasus' back with one mighty swing, but something was clearly wrong.

Raine wasn't stirring, but as Devin carefully nudged her cheek, she involuntarily managed to emit a small smile, as if she was in a sweet dream. Her cheeks were pink and matched well with the lush grass, as her mud-brown hair blended perfectly with the emerald-green grass too. She was still alive, but unaware of her entire rescue.

Afterward, Devin allowed Tai to give her a small, yet crucial checkup. Tai confirmed that Raine should be alright after checking her heartbeat. He then held up one finger in front of her lips to check her breathing's rhythm. Raine's first few breaths were steady, before she began to cough a bit violently. Tai recommended, "We should bring her to the nurse's quarter. Raine's heartbeat is steady, but she could've inhaled too much smoke. This can be a deadly, medical condition, if it's not treated."

Devin wiped beads of sweat and breathed with a small bit of relief. Raine would be fine for now. He then turned and looked up at Blaze, who had a look of concern on him. Devin enquired Blaze indebtedly, "How can I ever thank you?"

Blaze neighed with ease, as he pranced around the field. Then with a twinkle in his eye, he said, "Eh, I'm fine, but I could do with some treats, you know."

Candi stopped whimpering at the sight of Raine's horrendous condition, and immediately dashed up to Blaze with a smile. "Here," she beamed, offering him a lollipop.

Blaze looked abominated, before he quickly hid that expression. Then, he inched back timidly and murmured, "No, thank you."

Suddenly, the white horse dashed up and snatched the lollipop whole in his jaws.

Seeing how Candi didn't know how to react to her gift being nicked, "Blaze heaved out a sigh of relief, before he replied, "Thanks, but erm… you needn't have. I'm allergic to sugar anyway."

"Oh," stated Candi, "Well, how about some nice, juicy vegetables then?"

Blaze sighed as he rolled his eyes, "Oh, here we go with the wrong guesses on my diet again. Next time, either I wear a sign saying, 'Feed me this:' or I should choose to become a Chimera. You know, those fearsome creatures that're half-lion, half-goat, n' has a snake for a tail. If I was one o' those, then people would assume my carnivorous diet, instead of a herbivorous one."

Ani yelped at the mention of a snake; she ran around in circles, checking to see if there were snakes in the grass. She lifted her dress and ran on tiptoes, as she shook off more chicken feathers.

Eve rolled her eyes as she wondered how many more feathers did Ani have in stock for her outfits. She shook her head, while she eyed Ani, "That girl has way too many feathers! Gosh, she might as well put them all together, and be able to defend herself from bullets with that many feathers!"

Afterward, Tai tried to get everyone's attention by announcing his matter, "So, anyway, how are we going to get back?"

All of a sudden, the wind's currents began to throttle the teenagers and made Tai's point go unnoticed at that moment. The dark clouds above them began to swirl, while the wind caused tattered bits of leaves to seem engorge them. Devin covered Raine's eyes with a paw of his, in order to prevent small particles from entering her eyes. The rest of the teens did the same, but only made cracks in between their fingers to peer through curiously.

Abruptly, some mystical power struck the ground, launching all of the leaves away from a designated ring. It was as if a clear wall of air was made, keeping all of the torn bits of leaves out of a certain area. Some of the teens dropped their hands, which were covering their eyes, at this mysterious work of magic. They watched the wind blow the burnt leaves around them, but none could pass through the circular wall of air. Fern and Candi almost released squeals of terror, when they saw who had created that: Their coach had appeared. The nymph for a coach somberly stared at them, before uttering three words, "You are dismissed!" These words echoed throughout the forest, while their coach turned into a gray swirl of wind, and vanished into thin air.

At the vibrations of the nymph's words, the bad mood of the clouds faded away almost instantly, and the sunlight shone through the clouds again, as their sun perched high up there in the blue sky again. Crackles and rumbles could be heard, as treetops climbed up again, and had their branches reattached. The forest sprang to life, as if it had been renewed from a deep sleep. This happened all so hastily, that it made the forest look as though it had never been touched before. The teens watched in awe as vines regrew and swiftly snaked around trees, while colorful butterflies fluttered and birds sang their sweet songs again. The ambience of the lush forest was back, and the teens gasped with astonishment. Some of them almost felt very young again, and began bolting around, laughing at a game of tag.

Unanticipatedly, the whinny of a horse could be heard in the distance.

A few of the teens rapidly pivoted to look at the white horse. The white horse had his mouth stuffed with fresh blades of grass, so the noise couldn'tve come from him. Alongside, Blaze, the pegasus, picked up his forelegs and used them to shrug, as if to say, 'Not me.'

Another sound made by a horse was followed by a gruff snort. The couples heard it, and they swung their heads to see…

"Talia! And, erm… 'Nightmare,'" greeted Marie, who was relieved that they could get away from the horses.

Talia was clinging to 'Nightmare's' waist while he set the black mare to a gallop, before he had it rear to a halt. Talia let out a little shriek as she tightened her grip around 'Nightmare'. Then, with a helping hand from 'Nightmare,' she was lowered to the ground. Talia asked their spectating crowd, before immediately regretting the question, "So, how'd you do without us?"

A burst of offended answers aroused, as Talia fearfully clung to 'Nightmare' again, after he let the black mare roam freely.

Devin shouted, "You need to ask after we didn't have 9-1-1 on speed dial?!"

Tai clapped a hand to his forehead to cover his eyes from the discord, while Candi chewed on her lip silently without an answer.

Cyndi was yelling insults, such as, 'You missed everything and helped with nothing!' Her shouts were muffled by the rest of the clamor though, while Ani squawked angrily and shed more feathers.

Eve rolled her eyes again at the dizzying thought of how many more feathers did Ani have remaining.

'Nightmare' elbowed Talia and murmured, "Maybe you shouldn'tve said that."

Talia gulped, "Ya, oops. But what should've I said anyway?"

'Nightmare' replied, "Maybe with something that does not sound as harsh? Something like, 'Are you okay?' For if you sound harsh, people'll usually reply back harshly."

"When did you learn that?" asked Talia interestedly, as she balled up a fist lightly, and put a side of her jaw on it.

"Since I had to win your heart," stated 'Nightmare' in a as-a-matter-of-factly way, while hiding a smug smile under the shadows of his mask.

Talia blushed as she turned away and bit her nails nervously, while dark strands of hair rushed down her cheek.

Tai then cleared his throat to interrupt this couple's moment, while Candi was next to him and holding her fingers up. Candi grinned and made a rectangular frame that was supposed to represent a camera. She said, "Cheese; smile at the camera!" as she was pretending to film the two's moment.

Talia turned red with embarrassment, before she bit her lip back, and looked to 'Nightmare' for help.

'Nightmare' rolled his eyes in slight annoyance beneath his mask, and thought, "Ya, we still have the public to take care of." 'Nightmare' scoffed, and then uttered irritatedly to Tai, "Ya, what?"

Tai ignored 'Nightmare's displeased tone and indicated, "So, how are we going to get out of here?"

'Nightmare' shouted, "Don't look at me, Nerd! You're supposed to be the smart one here."

Tai mumbled at that sharp remark, "Um... thanks?"

'Nightmare' continued, "Ya, just don't look at me— look at Blaze."

Blaze coughted, "Wait, what? Me?"

Very soon, Blaze had found what they had meant. Nearby, nestled in the forest, they found the stables, which they snuck into and found a carriage. Talia and 'Nightmare' managed to equip Blaze with the necessary gear,, and luckily avoid the presence of their ghastly coach. There, they decided that everyone would take turns in a set of four, and fly to their destination.

'Nightmare' and Talia looked at each other, for they promptly got the same idea. They had to protect these kids.

"So, who's gonna be the footman, n' who's gonna' be the escort?" smirked 'Nightmare'.

Talia answered quickly, "Well, duh, you're gonna be the footman!" She then playfully shoved him, before continuing, "Because if I take that position, then I'm going to barf so much, that there'd be more barf, than grass by the time we finish!"

Blaze, who was nearby, snorted in disgust at that. Then, he shouted, "Okay, first passengers on board please, before I _personally_ throw up at the thought of more icky puddles than grass."

'Nightmare' got to his post, while Talia commanded, "Devin with Raine to the front seats, while I want to see Tai with Candi at the back seats. Since you're the closest as family to them, I expect that you both behave."

As their first set of passengers approached, 'Nightmare' opened the gate of the grand carriage and stated, "And I advise you to be quiet on this ride."

Tai gulped as he saw that 'Nightmare' was their usher. With this guy's creepy mask on, no matter how elaborate the carriage was, it felt as if they were taking a trip to a haunted house!

Meanwhile, Candi put her fingertips to the edges of her lips. She stared in awe, as her jaw fell agape at the dazzling, white carriage. Golden swirls that represented laurel leaves lined the gate of the carriage, while its curved poles were completely inlaid with gold on the outside. Fringes were on the top of the carriage and lined with gold too, while a few more swirls were embellished above the cushioned seats. On the inside, velvet pillows were laid against each corner of the carriage, while a few more were stuffed underneath the seats. The inner roof of the carriage had a curved ceiling with an intricate painting on there. In the picture, little angels, fluttered around in the luminous blue sky, while fluffy clouds dotted above a white palace. A large pond was put close-up, while green anthurium leaves, bordered with red shades, had dewdrops on them. Swans puffed out their feathers, and had their necks reach out to the sky, as the painting froze them in the middle of a take-off. The work of art was undeniably admirable, and after goggling at it a little longer, Candi looked at the top of the carriage. The top was admirable too, but a bit sharp to begin with. A silver, spear-like point was on the outside, plopped onto the center of the carriage. Fluorescent roses cascaded down, while their long stems and edgy leaves wrapped round the carriage's golden lanterns. Candi was finally awaken from her daze, when Blaze snorted some refusals continuously at Ani's pleas that he should where a giant, feathery boa at the top of his head as if he was fancy horse. Candi glanced back and saw Devin, woefully carrying Raine, as he had his head bowed. Candi watched and felt a bit disturbed by this sight, so without any more hesitation, she stepped into the elaborate carriage.

While she did so, Devin just kept his eyes softly on Raine, as he admired her beauty in his arms. In his large, furry arms, Raine almost seemed at peace, as she seemed to be comforted by his hold. She slept as though nothing in the world could disturb her. Through his hazy vision without his glasses, Devin saw that her rosy lips were slightly parted, while she breathed wisps of air delicately in her sleep. The loose ends of her hair fanned out in his arms, as her blue irises were covered by her eyelids, preventing her vision from meeting the blue of the sky.

Unanticipatedly, her long, purple gown began reappearing. Slowly, the fabrics went from the top of her waist to the ends of her ankles. With a poof and a swirl of sparkles, a pair of heels mystically reappeared on her feet. Following that, a shower of sparkles rained on top of her head, letting her silver, glittering tiara reemerge. When its work was done, the large centerstone of a sapphire on her tiara flashed, causing all the sparkles in the air to fade away at once. Devin gaped in awe, while Raine's eyelashes had now been curved magnificently like never before. Together, they both emitted a small smile unawaredly, as the wind sent their hair soaring and waving together.

Behind them, Talia scoffed, as 'Nightmare' rolled his eyes beneath the shadows of his mask; he was disgruntled by how slow this pair's pace was. Blaze mumbled, "Lovebirds," before 'Nightmare' shut the door of the carriage. 'Nightmare' then stood at the footrest between the lanterns on the side of the carriage. He then shouted to Blaze, "Okay, full speed ahead! We have no time to waste with an emergency at hand!"

"Full speed?" inquired Blaze, "You got it!" Without warning, Blaze shot off into the sky, bolting at an incredible speed till he became not just a fireball, but a streak in the sky!

At the sight of Blaze turning into a twinkle in the sky, as if they had blasted off like Team Rocket from _Pokémon_ , Talia shrieked, "Holy!"

In the meantime, 'Nightmare' was screaming in terror, until all of the air gave out in his lungs. The powerful air currents then shoved more oxygen down his throat as he was flying with his mouth open. 'Nightmare' coughed and sputtered at the forced impact of the air. Soon afterward, he bit his tongue to hide what he would consider an embarrassing action from himself. He had his hands cling tighter to the golden pole of the carriage, while the air's currents shook him like a wave. He frantically called, "Stop, Blaze!" His call went in vain though, as Blaze was engulfed in flames that were crackling too loudly for him to hear them.

Up front, Blaze had become a silhouette within the traces of the fire, as he kept zooming along without noticing his passengers' frenzy.

Inside the carriage, the passengers yelped with pain, as they were being jostled against each other or slammed against the carriage. 'Nightmare' heard the shouts of anguish coming from inside there, and he slowly began climbing on the carriage against the tremendous currents of wind that knocked against him. He clutched his mask, and he strained his face with determination, in order to keep his mask on. Beads of sweat dripped down his jawline, as he felt other droplets become cold because of the air that rushed against them. The bitterness of the chill air also nipped at his skin mercilessly, trying to get him to let go of his grip in pain. He felt his palms go numb, as the stinging began within his muscles, for he had been holding onto the carriage remarkably tightly.

Only an elated Candi was shouting, "Weeee!" inside the carriage.

Tai managed to give a weak smile at Candi's delight, before he was slammed against a window's edge and gave an outcry of pain.

At that noise of pain that 'Nightmare' heard from his passengers, he urged himself to struggle against the wind's currents even more. With one, aching pull at the fringe on top of the carriage, 'Nightmare' managed to pull himself onto the stairs in front of the gate to the carriage.

With a glimpse, 'Nightmare' saw that Devin was still cuddling Raine tightly, preventing her from colliding with anything, but even though she was still unconscious and had no prevalent injuries on her, they could see that a troubled expression had crossed her face. It was as if she had an inkling of what was going on.

Abruptly, a loud crackle could be heard, and they all swung their head to look at where that sound had come from. At once, Raine's expression became the least of 'Nightmare's worries. Everyone's conditions immediately became endangered at the sight of the golden pole, to Devin's right, splitting.

'Nightmare' heaved himself forward to get closer to Blaze, but they were all of a sudden, they were throttled back by an increase in the amount of speed from Blaze. 'Nightmare' lost his grip on the stairs, and tumbled backwards, barely managing to grab a hold of the golden pole, where he had started from. Another horrifying crackle alarmed them, and a second pole broke on Devin's side. The front of the carriage was now rattling, and the alarmed passengers attempted to get away from there, as the front of the carriage began to shake violently, without anything to attach to. 'Nightmare' gritted his teeth, intent to solve this crisis, before he stared up at the sky. The relentless air knocked at his head, while blurs of clouds streamed by rapidly, making him feel queasy. What made him feel even more uneasy, was the fact that he now saw Devin inch out of his seat.

Still holding onto Raine, Devin offered a paw out to 'Nightmare'. Devin yelled panic-strickenly, "Take my paw!" Devin saw that 'Nightmare's masked face looked from his enormous, padded paw, to his deformed, beast-like face. He observed 'Nightmare's expression, as this stubborn guy had his eyes narrowed through the apertures of his mask, while the air's currents ebbed his body, swinging 'Nightmare' violently as if he was a piece of hung-up laundry. Devin had no idea of what 'Nightmare's reaction was. Could it be disbelief? Hope? Or...

'Nightmare' then spat ferociously at Devin, "I don't need your hospitality."

With that rude response, Devin decided that 'Nightmare's reaction was disgusted, just before Candi shrieked, "O-M-G, he yeet himself!" Devin refocused and reacted to that, as he had his eyes trail to where Candi was pointing at…

'Nightmare' had let go of his grip on the pole.


	22. Gliding towards Confinement

'Nightmare' watched his shrieking crowd as they had startled and helpless expressions remain frozen upon their faces, while he fell beyond their reach. Rather than having a panicked expression on his face, 'Nightmare remained calm, for this was part of his plan. In other words, he did this _on purpose_.

Without a second to lose, 'Nightmare' halted his freefall by seizing the rotating, golden wheel, that was spinning rapidly on the rear end of their carriage. He knit his fingers tightly around that wheel, before he heaved his own chest against it, and pressed himself against it with all his mightl, allowing him to spin round and around with the wheel.

The air currents spun 'Nightmare' and the wheel round and around in circles several times. With each rotation, the speed accelerated at a constant rate. The spinning was enough to cause 'Nightmare' to feel nauseous, as he had to keep his eyes peeled open, against the currents of the wind, in order to keep track of his surroundings. First, he saw the sky above him, then his vision met the forest below. He then saw the sky again, before he saw the forest below him again. 'Nightmare's surroundings were turning more and more into a blur, as the clouds began zooming past him in the sky. He felt tempted to vomit, but he did not do so. After all, having a mask on, and being in the middle of the air, would definitely not make it an ideal time to vomit in.

'Nightmare' kept on spinning faster and faster, while he tracked his surroundings. He waited until the right moment, before he let go of the wheel! Like a slingshot, he shot himself from the wheel and up onto the top of the carriage!

The passengers inside the carriage gasped and attempted to see what 'Nightmare' was doing on top of roof. They were absolutely astonished by how confident he was, and how he seemed to know what he was doing. As he had shown, he had just successfully completed his critical plan.

Meanwhile, 'Nightmare' was scrambling to get ahold of himself, as he held on for dear life on top of the unstable roof. With two of its white, wooden pillars severed, the roof rattled frighteningly, as it would clearly not hold for long. Frantically, 'Nightmare' lunged for the golden spear-like tip that was fastened onto the centerpoint of the carriage. He managed to grab ahold of the spear-tip, and with one mighty yank, he managed to break it off. When he broke it off, he heard a loud, mighty _crack!_ The carriage's roof began shuddering and jostling him even worse, causing 'Nightmare' to look to his over his right shoulder, just in time to see that the third pole of the carriage had snapped, right after he broke off that spear-tip.

Feeling queasy as the ride began to jostle him uncontrollably, 'Nightmare' clutched the spear-tip in his hands, as he began to slowly crawl forward. The wind began to press against his mask, and 'Nightmare' could feel the ridges of his mask biting into him. Carefully, he edged to the front of the carriage, before he allowed himself to drop onto the coachman's seats on the front of the carriage. The wind shoved at him hard though, causing him to fly back and cause a _thump_ against the front of the carriage, as he got pinned to it for a moment.

Up ahead, he could see Blaze streak along in the sky like a fireball with his flame-colored wings. All he had to do now was to climb upon the flimsy ropes that tied Blaze to the carriage. Luckily for them, the ropes were made out of 24-karat gold, rather than natural fibers. Otherwise, the ropes would've singed immediately. Rather than staying stiff like regular gold in jewelry, 24-karat gold was so soft that it could actually bend at the slightest touch. Therefore, they stayed attached to Blaze, and were resistant to his heat. Now all he had to do was to get this reckless pegasus to…

"Hey!" Devin called in his gruff, beast's voice, causing 'Nightmare' to whip his head around. Before he could even see 'Nightmare's grouchy reaction, Devin offered, "Let me give you a helping hand!"

Through the howling voices of the wind, Devin heard 'Nightmare's voice hoarsely yell, "I don't need your…" It was clear to Devin though, that if 'Nightmare' hesitated for too long, then it could be the end for all of them. Therefore, without a warning, Devin stuck his head through the open window, and gave 'Nightmare' a mighty shove, thrusting him forward. The next moment, Devin found himself wincing, as he embraced an unconscious Raine tightly in his arms. Through the loud screaming of the wind, he could hear 'Nightmare's muted enraged shriek that could've been mixed with possible pain.

The carriage gave a sudden lurch forward, sending all of the passengers out of their seats, as they had been jolted against one side of the carriage. The intense currents of the wind had stopped messing with Candi's hair, while Tai attempted to pat her hair down, and they found themselves hovering in the midst of the sky, when their ride had halted.

Up front, Blaze reared and neighed in pain. He whirled his great head around, tossing his flame-colored mane, and he snarled unpleasantly, as his eyes narrowed. He glared, unamused, at 'Nightmare's deed, while 'Nightmare' still held the golden spear-point in his hand. Blaze howled, "Ouchy! What was that for? You didn't need to hit me with that stabby-stab thing, now, do you?"

'Nightmare's head swiveled and he glared at Devin, who turned beat-red. Devin didn't actually mean to hurt 'Nightmare,' he just thought that Blaze's flames were just an allusion, not genuine flames that could end up leaving a few burn marks and spots of ashes upon 'Nightmare's face. Devin scratched his head sheepishly and apologized.

'Nightmare' just continued to scowl at Devin though. Getting the sense that 'Nightmare' would not accept his apology, Devin mumbled, "Well, even if I didn't shove you, then you might've jabbed Blaze even harder. Those ashes on your face really suit your look anyway."

Hearing that, Blaze snapped, "Argh, so it was you, 'Nightmare! I knew it!"

The argument between Blaze and 'Nightmare' continued for quite a while, until the passengers told them to cut it out. Blaze then pivoted and began barking like a dog, as 'Nightmare' made it on top of him, and took ahold of Blaze's mane. For quite a while already, it was clear to the passengers that Blaze may not have been a horse in real life. With all his yapping and consistent barking, this strange pegasus, may have actually been a real dog instead. Blaze barked once more, as he snapped at 'Nightmare's hand and attempted to toss 'Nightmare' him off. Blaze grumbled, "Alright, alright. Everyone please stay seated. We are heading back down right now as quickly..."

"Blaze…" warned 'Nightmare'.

Irritatedly, Blaze reared and finished in a mocking voice, "Okay, okay, and I shall have 'Nightmare' as my supervisor." He glared at 'Nightmare,' before he attempted to snap at 'Nightmare' with his jaws again, but 'Nightmare' held onto his mane firmly.

Very soon, the teenagers were on the move within the sky again. The cool breeze whipped their hair around, as a slight chill bit at their noses. Devin looked down at Raine, who was still slumbering on his lap against all of his brown fur. Even against his fur, she still felt cold. He wanted to bring her closer to his chest, but there was no need for that. Raine had already unconsciously shivered, before she voluntarily snuggled closer to him. Once her slumped figure got into a comfortable position, she let out a heavy sigh of content. He smiled a warm smile, and just kept his arms around her.

Their ride begin to slow down, as Blaze began to beat his wings heavily in a rhythm. With a _thump_ , they landed on the firm, grassy plain. 'Nightmare' threw one foot off of Blaze, while Blaze still struggled to get through his equipment in order to get a bite at 'Nightmare'. 'Nightmare' got away though, but before he could personally get to the gate of the carriage, Devin had already swung the gate open, and Tai was giving him directions on where the Nurse's Office was.

Tai directed them as skipped several steps on the staircase of the school, "Remember that gigantic, golden arch where we exited from? Go through there!"

Devin rushed through the arch as told, while he held Raine and hoped with all his might that she would be alright, for their journey had taken a bit longer than expected.

Candi was beginning to fall behind, as she was on heels and the floor had just been freshly mopped. She was beginning to lose her balance on heels. Tai whirled around and grabbed Candi's wrist, and together, they crossed the slippery, marble floor like ice skaters. As they did so, Candi shrieked ecstatically, "Weeeeee!"

Attempting to not lose his balance, Tai shouted, "Keep on going, Devin! Now go past that Potions prison."

"Prison?!" questioned Devin.

"I meant, 'Classroom'!" corrected Tai, losing his focus, "Turn right now! Wait! I mean, 'Go straight!'"

Devin skidded and couldn't stop in time. He ended up falling on his rear end and began sliding across the marble tiles of the floor. He busted through the door in front of him.

Inside that room, Joy was standing around, and when her door busted open, she whizzed around in shock. She stated, "May I help…," but her sentence was cut off at the sight of Raine, unconscious, while she was in Devin's arms, as he slid feet-first into her office.

Devin begged, "Please, help her! There was a fire and…"

As Devin gave a summary of their situation, all of them, including Joy, did not know that they were being watched.


End file.
